To the Americans:
The question is not that the “world” is not grateful for GPS, the question is that the world now relies on accurate positioning, and fears that should any “troubles” were to start, and US will decide to encrypt GPS signals, a European (and Russian, forgotten in these comments) systems would come in handy.
Strategically speaking, having accurate positional data is quite important, I am more than positive that US has a way of rendering GPS signals useless during war time. It is most probably classified, and I would not be at all surprised if US military receivers have hidden firmware settings to switch to a different frequency and protocol, if the main GPS signal goes dead.
What I have always wanted to know, however, is how the old ICBMs navigated, before satellite positioning...