Had a friend working in first level support. He told me stories once in a while. And it sounds pretty close...
From our point of view it sounds idiotic. Even sometimes narcissistic. But in there world it makes sense, because they have no idea how those two actions connect.
I convinced my 60-year-old parents to get themselves landline internet since they had been sharing a really small mobile data allowance. The landline enabled them to have things like Netflix. They had owned a smart TV for years with no internet...
Anyway, mum calls me up because she's having issues with getting Netflix to work on her TV. After a bunch of troubleshooting trying to help her over the phone, I asked her to reinstall the Netflix app. She goes silent. She didn't have the application installed, she had been trying to run Netflix on her tv by using an internet browser to go to the Netflix website and watch shows that way.
Most of the abstractions used in computing are objectively quite complicated. Filesystems are a classic example - to understand a filesystem practically someone has to be able to imagine a tree structure, which they will never see laid out in one spot. A lot of ordinary users aren't going to be up for that, I don't think that is a skill called upon outside of computing.
In the case of "deleting Google maps" I'd suggest many users probably operate by remembering a recipe of actions they need to take to get a result, of a form "see this" -> "do that". If they aren't regular computer users, it is easy to see how the fact that some of those steps are in a context that we call "Google Maps" could escape them. They probably aren't comfortable with the idea of programs (especially if someone has told them that programs are separate from each other; because as an axiom that it is sometimes violated). Google Maps isn't labeled inside the app, so if they don't already know what it is they aren't going to figure it out.
In short, yes users are going to believe contradictory things. Just because Hacker News users all know the common abstractions by heart doesn't make them obvious to everyone.
What technicians don't realize is how often PEBKAC is located at the programming station.
Developers surprised by users lacking a mental model of the operating system, who follow HIGs without understanding why they exists, or who never see how their applications are used, are prone to build applications that kill by a thousand paper cuts.
It doesn't help that people skills are moved to a separate discipline and not taught as part of the essential CS curricula.
Yes, not least because technicians are really bad at building context. Telling people to delete stuff to protect their privacy without providing a clear alternative that delivers equivalent functionality is a good way to upset them.
The google intent system makes it easy for apps to call other apps. Things like location -> map. Or need an barcode scan -> scanner pops up. Need an email -> email client pops up. Click on a movie and youtube or netflix pops up. So sure, people may think "I'll never need that apps" without realizing that it breaks opening that kind of file/website/link.
The bindings between intents or filetypes and the apps that open them is a rather common support issue across numerous platforms.
For whatever reason it's pretty common for users to think ... "I'll never need excel on this computer", but then be rather irate when they can't open an excel attachment.
How are those contradictory? I get rid of my dictionary, my other books still work.
I, personally, understand the shortcut. Do you want to not break stuff or educate consumers? One of those sounds really expensive.
I mean, it’s a clever threat. I think it overestimates people at their most angry. A rational person wouldn’t break stuff. An irrational person will double down on their belief that you broke other stuff.
"I don't like Google Maps and I deleted it. Now I can't see the map! Fix it now!"
"I see. There are competing map services available."
"That's not the map I want. I want the map!(Google Maps)"
"You can use a browser."
"Browser? What is it? I simply want to use map!"
"If you really wan to use the Google Maps from the app. Then you have to install the app called Google Maps"
"I don't understand you! Speak English! FIX IT! FIX IT!"