While I agree that parametrized rendering would be
cool, especially for
localization, I believe that maps will be a non-issue soon. Integration of
automatically generated maps from OpenStreetMap is being worked on.
Hopefully, we will soon have google-style interactive maps in wikipedia.
OSM will not make maps a non-issue at all. There will still be a need for
custom maps with
a) highlighted features (query to map may help here)
b) reduced detail to make certain aspects of the map stand out
c) statistical, historical or other data coloring or overlaying the map
Daniel