My experience with HERE maps has generally been fine. Truly confused why anyone would call them 'useless'. I will say that it doesn't always find the quickest route through local streets and tends to favor sticking to more major roads. It's not a question of taking into account speed limits either (ie, it evaluating the side roads but opting for the major roads), because once I turn into the side street and it re-routes, the ETA does go down, indicating that even by its metrics, this is a more efficient route. I get the sense it's not fully evaluating every possible option, and only evaluates the side street once you're on it. I can't think of another reason. It's a minor nitpick, though as the time difference is usually very small.
I absolutely appreciate the route management features on long trips to evaluate other options with it showing time and SOC implications.
Between using Tidal for audio and HERE maps for the nav, I basically don't use my phone for anything other than bluetooth connectivity for making/receiving calls/texts.