I am curious though - is it convention to leave the data as is, or is it illegal to modify it?
Regardless, itll just be changed back in 2 years; as long as I can type "lake ontario" and get directed to Lake Ontario, I do not care at all what the gov database calls it currently.
Given the First Amendment, it's in no way illegal for individuals or corporations to use whatever place names they want. But if yout maps platform is essentially wedded to a government database and is designed entirely around the use of that database, using different place names is much, much more difficult.
Why do you expect meek reaction in a rename like this? What is eye rolling over reacting to this particular rename?
Google should override it but I don’t expect them to, because theyre selfish and suck. Only thing to do is win elections.