Nokia Maps works like this too. Many proprietary applications require a license to work with features which work on the client side. Incidentally, those applications (or parts of applications) are also the easiest to circumvent. Because the online services give the client data, it is easy to authenticate the client to make sure it has a valid license. That is why a game such as WoW is profitable, and why TomTom is profitable. The graphics and maps can be distributed on BitTorrent for all they care. What you describe is how other navigation services work too. Or worse, they don't even offer the maps for free. Officially, Google doesn't provide their maps for free either.

I've seen some compares of other navigation services and as far as I'm concerned I haven't seen an in-depth analysis why Navicore is inherently a badly priced product because for TomTom on S60 you pay about 75 EUR for only the maps, and only for your country, and without voice guided navigation or traffic information. OTOH, I paid far less that the regular price for it.

Now, their customer support sometimes simply ignores people, or don't admit problems. I think I know why: its a tiny customer support team, sponsored by Nokia (outsourced). While I've been helped well these were probably common issues. There is no room for more software development and in-depth Q&A (no second line of defense ) only [some] bugfixes and such. On an open source platform, [such] (severe) bugs severely piss customers off. Such as that there is no seemingless transition from one country to another. Required if you almost live on the border between 2 countries and travel a lot between them... *sigh* but, this is a proprietary platform.

Perhaps a better solution is a data plan + Maemo Mapper or one of the other alternatives (Qt Mapper, tangoGPS, etc) or you buy a (HQ) dedicated navigation device or a navigation package for your phone.