B"H

If the Google Places JavaScript library is just a wrapper around the REST API, and does not have any visual representation 90% of the time. Why does the initialization of each service require a reference to either a Map object or a container div? It doesn't interact with the DOM in any way.

You can't access the REST API directly from the browser with fetch or axios because they don't implement cors. So you're forced to use the JavaScript library. But then the JavaScript library forces you to be tied to the DOM for no apparent reason.