I believe it is blatant lying because they went out of their way to prevent their customers from having those features, even though they were readily available on other platforms through their established partner. It's also rather dishonest to say that they had to build something new from the ground up. They had other options (namely Google), which would have served their customers better.
Multiple independent sources have confirmed that their contract with Google prohibited Apple from implementing turn by turn. That's why Apple chose to roll their own app. If you're going to accuse someone of lying, it would be a good idea to have the facts on your side.
Actually, from everything I've read, it appears Google refused to allow Apple to implement those features (see, for example, http://allthingsd.com/20120926/apple-google-maps-talks-crash...). Google wanted to keep those features exclusive to Android maps.
Google could have been asked to provide the same features, but there must be concessions Apple would have to give Google. These trade-offs, when evaluated by Apple, were not something that served their customers better. You can disagree with that, but it doesn't mean they are lying. And if it isn't obvious they are lying, it certainly isn't blatant.
To get what they wanted without trade offs, without hidden compromise of their customers, they had to leave their partner. A partner, mind you, who had shown they will put better products (GMail app, Map app) on their own platform (I like both those apps on Android, and GMail on iOS is a joke).
By building their own from the ground up, they also prevent this from happening again with another external partner who wishes to gain some leverage over the richest company in the world.
I'm not apologizing for the decision, or the quality of maps. And while I love to stigmatize liars, this accusation waters down the insult of blatant lying.
They had to if they considered that what Google was asking was unreasonable. For all we now Google might have asked for things Apple was not comfortable giving them, starting with user data and all the way up to co-branding.
