Requiring that more be done has the effect of discouraging new people, and this is bad. When one has experience with the various online mapping programs, experience at measuring, and a high-speed internet connection it’s no big deal to produce online maps. For a newbie to be required to do it – in addition to what we already ask of them – would make the job even harder.
New measurers may not possess all these things, and requiring them to do online maps in addition to the existing measuring and map drawing may discourage them from even trying.
Also, the question of which map is the “official” one may come up. Sometimes the online version may not match up exactly with the paper certification map. Which one is “official?”
I occasionally visit my son who lives in rural Virginia. His area is not clearly covered by aerial photographs and an online map would not be possible. Newly built areas also may not be covered by aerial maps. Thus we could be in the position of requiring the measurer to do the impossible.
There is nothing preventing a measurer from referring to a certain online map, and putting the info on the certification map, but to require that everybody do this is, I believe, a bad idea. The paper map must stand on its own to define the race course.