You can still use Google Maps without an account and "incognito". I wish they'd allow app store usage without an account though- similar to how any Linux package manager works.
That's not really the issue. The issue is that for google maps to work properly, it requires that the Play services are installed. Play services are a massive semi-monolithic blob that requires tight integration with Google's backend, and deep, system-level permissions to operate correctly.
People need to remember that most of Android got moved into Play Services. It was the only way to keep a system relatively up to date when the OEMs won't update the OS itself.
Yeah, it's a dependency... as much as the Google Maps APK needing to run on Android itself.
I use maps on my phone on a regular basis - I would vastly prefer to have something less featured and stable versus hacking the crap out of my phone. But that's good to know.
One workaround is to use the mobile web app, which is surprisingly pretty decent for a web app. And because it's a web app, you can even disable things like sharing your location if you want to
I've just tested Google Maps on an Android device without Google Play Services or microG. The app works fine, although every time you cold-start it, the app shows an alert (which can be dismissed but not disabled) and a notification (which can be specifically disabled) that Google Play Services is unavailable. On an Android device with microG, Google Maps works without showing the alert or the notification about Google Play Services.
In addition to F-Droid, you can get Aurora Store (which is on F-Droid) which lets you use an anonymous login to get at the Play Store. I use it for a couple free software apps that aren't on F-Droid for some reason.
I also recommend Aurora Store as a complete replacement for the Play store. The one thing is that I've never tried using apps that I paid for on it but it works very well for any free apps. There is an option to use a Google account with Aurora but I've only ever used the anonymous account.
The only slight dowbside is that I haven't figured out how to auto update appd, so your apps will get out of date without you being notified and you have to manually do it. This problem might literally be solved by a simple setting thay I haven't bothered to look for, IDK.
On the plus side it includes all the official play store apps, along side some that aren't allowed by play store.
For examples, Newpipe, the superior replacement YouTube app that isn't allowed on play store due to it subverting advertisements and allowing a few features that are useful for downloading certain things.
You can still use Google Maps without an account and "incognito". I wish they'd allow app store usage without an account though- similar to how any Linux package manager works.