These restrictions are unique to projects doing automated submissions of mass data.
If you're an individual just trying to make the world a better place, you can make an OSM account, go to the website, click, add a thing, hit submit, done. Someone will review it.
Apps like CoMaps and Organic Maps make it super easy to contribute data for businesses, landmarks, and such.
I will share an unpopular opinion: thil will only make a freeworkforce for those projects who profit from using OSM. And the OSM has surprisingly unreliable data quality for walking around even in the popular tourist places like Tokyo or Kyoto, or New York. I've tried, and it's so worse than GMaps (or Bing) to being completely unusable. No work hours of Starbucks, no local dining cafe, no menu contributions.
It's great for the trail and hike outdiors, sure. But that's very different from the city map, as the nature featutes rarely change, not like city POIs.
This moves the goal posts of OSM
- opening_hours=*
- amenity=cafe
- website:menu=*
I don’t think you’ll find even most the die hard OSM fan disagree with you on the POI data.
On the other hand, the road network in OSM is very high quality. As you point out, it’s used and contributed to by companies like Lyft and Amazon.
The fact that anyone can download an accurate detailed global road network for free is pretty crazy.
Throughout nearly all of human history, one of the most difficult questions to answer was "where the hell am I?" and an even harder question was "how do I get to where I want to go?" Anyone can now answer both of those questions for free, within seconds, with accuracy within 3 or 4 yards. And, when it's wrong, they can contribute back to it instantly. OSM is the logical conclusion to one of the most difficult technical endeavours ever taken on by humans. It's astonishing when you think about it like that.
I would assume that tourist places don't have many locals going by and updating them and tourists don't want to fill in info on that kind of app, but that's mostly an adoption question. If more people contributed more info would be mapped.
I don't think this is an opinion, this is just an empirical fact. But it's good! OSM is a public service! This kind of thing should be public, individual citizens should have the agency to improve it, and businesses should benefit from its existence. It's the adopt-a-highway of cartography.