You're right that the only location services ever talked about being monetized are based on getting advertisers to pay for listing them when they are near your location.

I may be in a minority of one, but I'm using the term to mean any use that depends on GPS (or any location-approximation method) -- maybe to order information like restaurants or shops in a more meaningful way to you than alphabetization (eg, proximity) but also to initiate agents that get you other kinds of info, like the two examples I suggested.

Basically, if we don't begin to use location services in this broader way, it will eventually mean only the more-limited uses you identify.