I think the main reason for the lack of useful localized information is largely social. For large chain web sites, they don't want the locals being able to do damage to their sacred corporate image, so those web sites tend to be very centralized. I'm guessing here, but from my experience with large corporations I'd guess you have to file some form or other to get your local store's info updated, or else call the right person on the phone at the right time (when they're in, and not distracted so they just write down the changes and forget to pass them on to the IT department).

For smaller companies (rather more forgivable), I'm guessing that it's because the person who creates and maintains the site is not someone who works for the business; they're either an employee of a web-hosting/design business, or possibly the owner's brother's cousin. Getting a change through is not, shall we say, a formalized process. (I'm currently the IT department for a small business, and I'm not even sure how to access their web site; the former IT department moved to California several years ago and hasn't exactly been flooding the marketplace with answers to our technical questions...)

Which is why I think I should be able to do quite well selling wiki-controlled business web sites, if I ever have the time to get our commercial services web site (http://hypertwins.com/) into shape.

---

Re "goddamnit": it depends on what you mean by "right".