I was surprised that the post didn't mention anything about the main reason we were told that mobile phones needed GPS - for emergency location services. Sure this has also enabled unwanted and illicit surveillance, but it's also added countless mapping and location based services that weren't even considered when mobile phones first got GPS chips.
Phones had navigation before they had GPS chips based on cell location. Standalone GPS navigation devices with similar form factors to phones existed as well. And GPS dongles for laptops allowed turn-by-turn navigation back when an iPhone was a bulky thing that sat on a desk and dialed into a landline ISP.
Yes, those existed at some level, but once GPS was built in, it became “free” and easy to get location. Assisted GPS (using cell position and downloaded ephemeris) also meant you didn’t need a couple minutes for a dedicated GPS to go from a cold start.
There wouldn’t have been Uber, Yelp or Pokémon Go before location was just an API call.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enhanced_9-1-1