We are now obligated to pay Google Maps a $5 CPM (.50 cents previously) to publish our maps while we only average approximately $3 CPM from Google Advertising. If you do the math that means we are losing $2 per thousand visitors now if we continue to use Google Maps. Before the price hike, we could make a reasonable but not greedy $2.50 per thousand visitors. Publishing map data is not exactly a profitable business anymore.
We apologize for your downgraded experience and you can thank Google Maps no flexibility on pricing model for startups or companies that are virtually non-profit.