So I'd say if they can get this working anywhere, it will be in a traffic-riddled country full of people who obsess over journey times and who absolutely love this brand.
waze in Israel shows ads on the screen every time your speed is close to stopped, and then slide them up when you start moving.
it's awful. irresponsible. and gave me lots of anxiety every single time. it's probably fine for people that just want traffic info, but for actual gps guidance usage it is hell.
In some areas it has much better traffic routing. All it takes is getting alerted to one big jam ahead of time and you'll use it every commute.
- Waze is a bit more dynamic/aggressive in finding me alternatives when traffic patterns can change due to accidents - "speed trap reported ahead" - the "turn left" direction is better timed than Google, Google will tell you to turn while your turn's still a bit far off, sometimes you'd turn into the street before. - loyalty, Waze was great before Google bought it and used its reports and traffic data, and it's still great even now.
I agree with your Kleenex sentiment, quite a number of people who know their way home, still use Waze for the alerts and reports.
I agree that gmaps has a better interface, at least for routing. I vastly prefer the alternative routes implementation on gmaps (it's right on the map). In waze I need to click through a few screens, which isn't practical when I'm driving. In gmaps I can glance at the map and make a decision without touching the phone at all.
Waze has speed trap warnings, Google maps doesn't.