Keith,

Sounds like you are starting with a negative attitude about GPS, are you sure you can be objective?

Further it sounds like your experience with GPS is limited at best. Perhaps you need to find a writer with a bit more knowledge and experience with GPS.

Your example about the guy who was a 1/2 mile from camp and didn't know there were cliffs in between is not very good. It wouldn't matter if the guy had a compass and/or a map the cliffs would still be there and he shouldn't be. He should be able to find his way back to camp just by dead reckoning alone, and know where the cliffs are from looking at the map.

Even if he did encounter a cliff the GPS would be better to have to navigate back to camp as it will show him where he is unlike a map-compass which only tell him where he thinks he might be, if he paid attention and he knows how shoot azimuth to properly identified landmarks.