Back in the pre-GPS days, I used to ride regularly with a local club on Sunday mornings. We had several different routes, and chose which one to ride on the day - sometimes based on weather conditions (ie wind direction), sometimes based on whether we fancied something hillier or flatter, sometimes even based on which of our repertoire of café stops we wanted to visit.
For most of them, I had absolutely no idea where we were a lot of the time, beyond a vague idea of the area. I was just enjoying riding with the group and following the old hands who knew the way (until I got experienced enough to memorise the routes, in a turn-by-turn style). But it never really seemed important enough to worry about.
Riding solo is a different matter. I'll often take a road I've never ridden before just to see where it goes. Exploring in this way does help give you a much better feel for your local area, and how everything joins up. I remember when I was about 14 going out for a leisurely weekend bike ride with a friend, exploring the local countryside. I had only lived in the area a year or so, he had been there all his life, yet I was the one who knew where we were while he was completely lost.
Another time, a different friend and I decided to ride to Brighton one weekend, on a whim. We had no idea of the route, just a vague idea of the direction and distance, and just made it up as we went along. It was a great day out. We got to Brighton without mishap, and the next day we rode home again. I couldn't possibly tell you the route we used.
I never bothered looking at routes on maps until I started riding with GPS.