The step from simple simplification to automatic generalizations is not trivial, the map agency in Sweden just recently began publishing map updates for different scales using their own automatic generalization rules. I'm guessing they will save a lot of man hours by doing that, but they have taken their sweet time doing it.

The zoom needs to be locked this map should not be used/critiqued beyond a certain level and that needs to be more apparent. You can see the same the map that Ache posted bellow, as long as you keep zoomed out it is mostly good enough. My point is that this is not a sloppy job, but you are right that neither managed to solve the hardest problem.