It highly depends on what you're doing (a road trip vs a grocery run vs hiking mountainous back country) but the first step is to do a sanity check of the route. It's very easy for many GPS apps to route people to the center of an airport for example (i.e. the middle of the runway) instead of the main terminal, and only recently have a few apps managed to do better about that. Other times you can just easily spot that it's not a great route by reviewing it for ten seconds.

> What's the right answer here?

Essentially, check before hand and if possible, use maps fit for purpose.

(E.g. Switzerland has nice public topo maps which are usually more accurate than Maps/OSM. They're available in SwissTopo app. The dedicated app also tends to show closed routes more accurately.)

And double check with local info boards about current state (many regions have websites or dedicated meterological organizations that will post recommendations and closed routes).

Be aware that all maps be untrustworthy. Be aware of your environment. Don't blindly follow instructions. Have a backup plan.

> What's the right answer here?

Do not ignore reality.

Do not drive around signs announcing that bridge is closed, for an example.

To use a cliche, the map is not the territory.

Trust but verify