Except usability is getting worse too. There is now less and less content on the average screen and more and more whitespace and "design chrome". Buttons no longer look like buttons, hamburger menus are legion, and many new features are found behind undiscoverable gestures that must be mastered.
I think even making the right decisions in terms of usability, tethered to a few short-sighted user stories, will result in this situation. Usability should be in service of a higher purpose, which should be enabling the user to understand how to use something powerful and flexible that does not constrain them only to what is envisioned by the developer or the UI architect. That's what has happened here with Maps. You can perform User Story #1 or #2 with zero friction. But there is no way to do what @gravislizard wants to do, which wasn't anticipated by Google or specifically designed for.