Being used to Asian cities where addresses are often highly confusing and seem totally illogical, and Sat Nav often is a recipe for chaos, I've enjoyed walking/biking/driving around the map so far, but using the map key mostly as a learning tool first, directional guidance. I more enjoy the learning 'on the street' now. Starting from V's apartment area ( and then V's Mansion) I've made a habit of doing circular 'walks' and 'routes' without the map, feeling my way to that spacial awareness and 'sense of place' that you get from living in a new RL city.
At first I set myself some simple targets like learning one area, say Kabuki, working out the rough layout and directional instinct in Japan Town, and also biking around the map purely for the collection of FT points and the immersive 'wow look at that' . In RL and in games I am a compulsive explorer of alleyways, markets, and hidden places so gradually you get to recognise connections, and also main road routes almost as you would in RL.
I've also found the 'FreeFly' mod really interesting to get an aerial understanding of the city layout
The main problem I have (also in RL) sometimes is 'where the f*** did I park my car?' For realism, I do try to actually remember and make it back to the vehicle on foot rather than just call it up again, but it would be great if you could actually place a custom marker for places of interest and have 'bookmarks' that didn't get overwritten, and also maybe a map icon or beacon for where your vehicle currently is... (how many times in Astroneer I wander off and can't find my rover... thank goodness for beacons)
It would be interesting to have a kind of 'map my walk' feature in game where you could make and store journeys you have already learned. I navigate better by compass than anything else and in-game compass would be most helpful ( that tiny red directional thing on the minimap edge screen is not very effective) I would like expandable rotating mini map for drive and walk on demand.
I spend far more time on this kind of immersive stuff in games than on the linear story line