Man, The Hobbit map is still one of my favourites. With the moon writing and everything. I would stare at it for hours!
Dungeons are one of the places I do like to map out. The theater of the mind for me comes more for things like "a fight in an ally" I don't want to stop the game, and spend 10 minutes drawing a battle map, when everyone has a "pretty good idea" what an ally looks like. That's when I like to just run with it.
I know that feeling, and I remember playing through part of the first level of the incredible Waterdeep without counting a single square. Those were the days of the second edition. Now, drawing on our board and using miniatures has become something that even makes us bet on what might be hiding behind that 2x2 column. Have you tried Dungeon World? It has an incredible dungeon creator that rolls a d12.
I have read the book, but not actually played in a game. I like the idea of a lot of the other games, just always have a hard time with player buy-in if it's not one of the BIG games.