First a quick story:
Long before GPS sats entered orbit (dark ages) I was in Naval flight training and one part of the syllabus had us flying low-level navigation flights in Utah/Nevada.

The route for that day was rather simple; the first leg headed west iirc and all you had to do was count ridge-lines before turning south down a valley for the bulk of the flight. Lots of stuff to see to stay on track and on time. Rather than counting ridge-lines, one of the other students used his stop-watch and turned on time -- he turned down the wrong valley and although he thought he was seeing his checkpoints go by, everything after that first turn was simply wrong. That's the point.

and now back to our hikers:

These three turned down the wrong water-shed (valley) and after that everything was wrong, but from the ground it probably looked like it was supposed to look. They were lost and had no clue.

The $million$ spent on a GPS satellite constellation, the least we can do is spend $100 or so on a GPS receiver so we can access the input. You do not need to buy the latest; the old Garmin Geko 301 I have attached to my mountain bike still works great and that one on eBay is only ~$25 as I type. No maps, but cheap, small and after you add your waypoints, it will tell you how close and what direction -- a simple and cheap investment.

If you have no idea how to use a map and compass, it might be wise to get an understanding of basic navigation principles because even a good GPS cannot fix total ignorance.
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Better is the Enemy of Good Enough.
Okay, what’s your point??