I seem to have upset some mercator afficionados. As you say, for everyday usage any type centered on you (or a bit in front of your position) will be close enough to reality that navigating will be fine. For city planning the true size of things also matter a lot, as you mentioned. Long distance navigation doesn't use paper maps anymore except when GPS is jammed (which is not the norm if you aren't near Iran or Ukraine currently), and we are already on the way to make quantum navigation for ships feasable. In the case of aircraft, if GPS is down, there are more than enough alternative ways to navigate (communication with flight control, ground based beacons and so on) and long distance road travel will in 99% of cases use high tier roads which tend to have signs indicating where they go, in addition to navigation software that could adjust map projection on the fly if needed (but it isn't really needed, what you need is accurate lane and turn information, which is independent of what you see on the display).

I really don't understand the hive mind in this case. Anyone having some input here where the issue lies? I haven't touched a paper map where any of this stuff had mattered at least since the turn of the century.