Apple Maps doesn’t just recommend the fastest routes, it also appears to push the most popular routes as alternatives.
Here is the San Francisco area to LA in iOS 18. The longer route might seem insane if you’re not familiar with the drive, but that longer route is much prettier, and a lot of people intentionally drive in the coastal road for the views.
Edit: Weird. Lemmy isn’t loading the picture for me. All in all, this is a map of I5 to LA vs the Hyw 101 to LA. I5 is 2 hours faster, but it’s a long brown valley, it smells like cow shit, and you’re bombarded with homemade MAGA signs for several hours. It’s a drive of hate, farts, and truck stop food. 101 longer, but it’s recommended for redwoods forests and cute little beach towns.