Apple is not even trying, or is leaving their Maps team terribly under resourced. I've been running some experiments submitting the same edits to Google, Yelp & Apple simultaneously (since Apple uses Yelp data), and timing how long each takes to update. The last time I publicly recorded my results:

Google Maps: 40 minutes

Yelp: 3 days 20 hours

Apple Maps: 13 days

https://twitter.com/syneryder/statuses/668473075365642240

I know Apple's policy is to screen edits carefully to ensure accuracy & avoid vandalism, but it's actually making their maps more inaccurate, because it takes longer for errors to be fixed. Google has also started incentivising frequent editors with rewards (like free 1TB Google Drive subscriptions), which helps encourage people to make the corrections in the first place.

Not really. Google collect more, like wifi info :/ and images (street view). Google really did revolutionise mapping.