I will mention that Instincts DO have turn by turn directions, along with a breadcrumb map of your past and future path.
You just have to create the route in the Connect app, or export it from an external route designer as a FIT file and then import it into Connect, then transfer it to the device.
(If you import as a GPX file, it will lack turn-by-turns, but that is a deficiency of the GPX format, not the Connect app or the watch.)
This is actually more usable for navigation - even in the backcountry - than you might think, because it will tell you both "Turn right on Mulberry Street" or "Turn left onto Ridgeline Trail" at the right moment, and also inform you if you have gone off route quite quickly, showing you your current position in relation to the planned route and the compass directions.
What it won't do:
* Show you a map of the surrounding area, with nearby roads and trails
* Automatically re-route to continue to your destination via a different/new route if you deviate a little from the planned route.
It does, though, have a "retrace your route back to the start" function that works well, as well as GPS direction to either the start or a GPS coordinate you specify. The first option has a breadcrumb trail back to the beginning while the last two will show your past route, and compass direction in relation to the target point, but not a map of the surroundings per se.
Finally, with the AMOLED Instinct, there should be 3rd party mapping apps on Garmin's App Store, and data fields for activities, also on the App Store, that will (as a rule) team up with your cell phone to show an actual map of your current location in relation to nearby streets and trails.
This is not as good as actual Garmin Maps by any means (those are full independent full featured maps and routing ON THE WATCH; you can navigate a 2 week backcountry trip or whatever fully from the watch). But when you talk about maps "on the watch" for a $99 phone, or even Apple Watch, it's generally a phone-plus-watch pairing to get the nice maps, not actual independent maps large scale maps stored *on the watch*.
Instinct can't produce the nice map of the neighborhood that these other watches can. But what it can do, it can do fully independently as a self-standing device, not requiring a constant tether to a phone - or the phone's internet connection - to do what it does. You'll need the phone app to generate a breadcrumb route. But you can store many such routes right on the watch. And literally everything else is completely independent on the watch.
(Note that monochrome Instincts don't have any mapping apps available that I know of - even the 3rd party pair-with-the-phone type of maps. Monochrome Instinct will do all the navigation tricks I outlined above, but no pretty maps even via 3rd party apps. This is really a shame. But given the other options for navigation I outlined above, from a practical point of view it is not as bad as you might think. You can always whip out the Connect phone app to generate a perfectly usable breadcrumb map, with turn-by-turns, on the fly and to wherever you need to go. That is the same as with most sub-$500 watches: Requires the phone and you end up with a map and turn by turns you can follow an the watch.)
Still I think you're right that Garmin needs to cave in and provide at least this type of phone+watch mapping and routing on it's lower priced watches. It's available on literally EVERY other device in this price range, and even well below the Instincts price range now. They can reserve the fancy fully independent watch-based maps and navigation for the high-end devices, while still providing a $500 watch with basic phone+watch navigation features every $100 and $200 watch now has.
At some point it becomes actually embarrassing to lack such basic features. And we are pretty much at that point in the year 2025.
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