Hi @uppsju ,
Welcome to the Google Cloud Community!
There are several advantages in configuring URL maps and why it is considered as best practice. Here are some reasons you might find helpful:
- As you’ve mentioned, visibility is one of those. It provides you ability to identify the requests that are intended for your backend service.
- Control over routing. Configuring URL maps keep your options open for future expansion. it also provide you fine-grained control over your routing.
- Scability in your infrastracture. If you need to introduce additional backend service, you can be well prepared to handle these types of new traffic as having a defined routing rules can aid you in this process.
- Security. By specifying which requests you are accepting, it would reduce unauthorized access that may reach your backend services.
I hope you find this information insighful.