[steven]

I know what you're saying. It's for foreigners, but Japanese end up using it as "furigana" if they are "out of their element" as you say. Even though it's hard for some Japanese people to read, it ends up working that way. The first time I heard about this was from an elderly Japanese person by the way.

What I'm suggesting is that while the main purpose of the romaji is for foreigners, it ends up being useful for Japanese who might not be familiar with local town names and stuff like that.

You're right though, it'd be easier for Japanese if they just had Hiragana as furigana... but on most Aokans I've seen they only have romaji as furigana for kanji.