That's like saying you can disable the crosshair and ammo indicator in Counter Strike if you want more realism. Ok, but you're putting yourself at a big disadvantage.
^ and that's like saying that because you don't like a feature & you don't want to use it, you don't think anybody else should either.
The GPS thing doesn't show you the whole map and only shows you the basic layout of what's around you, including your team mates. I hardly even look at it myself, but I do use it for a second or two to make sure I'm heading in the right direction as the objective.
I imagine once I learn the maps more, I won't be using it for much at all..... using it or not using it is not the same as having crosshairs and not having crosshairs compared to other players like in CS.
In CS, you have no other real way of aiming at a target, there are no iron sights, so they're needed. The GPS just gives you a basic understand of what's around you, which I'd compare it to turning your head and looking around.... since you have tunnel vision in a monitor and your body is constrained to where you're looking, this compensates for this. That is, if you wish to look at it & use it.
If it showed you where every enemy soldier was located around you, then yes, that would be a disadvantage if you never used it and it'd be no better than a wall hack in your perspective.
It just shows you where an objective is, the status of that objective and where friendlies are.
The only benefits I see from it are that it helps you from not getting lost and to make sure you don't wander too far off away from your team..... and to see where most of your team is heading.
There's really not that much of a advantage or disadvantage.
And since others have pointed out that it's a server side thing that can be disabled, that means nobody can use it, or everybody uses it.... thus everybody's on equal ground.
In regards to the compass in RO1.... I always found that useless and generally brought up my map to determine where I was. I never used my compass.
