Of the complaints, I think there are three real problems:
1. Searches don't seem to be location aware
2. Stores are frequently in the wrong place
3. International data is seriously lacking

These are pretty significant issues, particularly the second. If I'm looking for directions to a place and it gives me directions only to have the actual location be several blocks away or worse, that's pretty serious. If you just don't have data, fine I can load up safari and find it myself. Like you say, they would have been much better off calling it beta and stripping out the features that weren't ready for primetime.