Editor's Picks Used to Be Interesting, Now Just Obnoxious

I used to find the Editor's Picks in Apple Maps helpful and interesting. Now, in the latest update to iOS (18.1.1) you actually get an "ad" every five or six entries when you're searching an area for a restaurant (or whatever you're looking for).

For instance, I just searched for "lunch" in Philadelphia (near where I live) and I got back the usual number of results (image below):

But what happens when I scroll through the results? After the first entry (Sabrinas, a great restaurant), I'm given a Guide by some group called Infatuation (never heard of 'em) called "Philly Hit List: Best New Restaurants."

I guarantee that I'm not opening up this "guide" to find a lunch spot. Even if I was interested before, now I'm just irritated.

Based on the persistent comments over the last several years, it looks like I'm not the first one to raise this question. What's new is that the "Guides" are now being forced into my search results...and it is frequent. With any given search, it appears that every third or forth "result" returned is a "guide suggestion."

I have used Apple Maps for a long time. I choose Apple Maps over Google Maps in most situations. But if there was something that would get me to ditch the OS native map feature, this would be it.

It does not seem like a complicated feature to give me the option to turn these off so that my use of Apple Maps is ad free. Or does Apple want me using a third party map application that boasts of no ads?