Yes, that is so true, they do change hands or names relatively often but retain all the elements that originally made them meet critiera.
And yes in the UK pubs are very social places where whole families are welcome, children are fine to be there and even encouraged ie games available and playgrounds outside. Very, very rare that a pub would be a bad place for a child here.
All of the above and what most people in the rest of the world don’t realise is that the legal age to buy alcohol in the UK is 12½.
Criteria is not a “a place to be social” its “a great place to be social”. Not all pubs are created equal, some could have terrible customer service, warm beer, bad food? We can’t assume that just because its a pub its a great waypoint. Pubs like many businesses are very far from categorical eligibility and each one should be evaluated case by case.
Someone has never been to a UK pub. All of them have that!
All the pubs around here are great places to be social with the exception of a couple that are town centee wetherspoons and are mostly full of drunks in the day, and at night too actually lol
Some serve food, some are more just for drinks or coffee, but all have a nice atmosphere for a drink with a friend. Theyre also all waypoints, for many years.
Edit, yes, UK here. Pubs are a huge part of our culture. Honestly any bad ones like you described would suffer for business fast and then we’d be back to changing the name/picture because it’d have a rebrand 
Well good or bad maybe? (I dont wish warm beer on anyone)… but criteria is universal and the guidance wont make exceptions because hey uts a pub… it would still need to go through “standard procedure” of being evaluated for its own merits, and not the merits of the previous business, even though in theory theyre the exact same merits.
But i think you guys really need Yelp, dont settle for warm beer. Leave a bad review and seek out the cold stuff.
Best part, surely? 
Generally the ID checks for age and heavy drinking culture would be associated with nightclubs here, not pubs.
Dancing on a table, I have only done that in a nightclub, not a pub Generally speaking pubs wouldn’t have the loud music, unless it was a live band for an event (in which case, dance away!)
Oh no - all these pictures 
Well thats exactly why each one should be reviewed by its merits and not categorically accepted/repurposed. If one is bad, then it shouldn’t have a waypoint, until one that deserves it takes its place.
To be fair I believe certain beers, e.g. Guiness is supposed to be served at room temperature.
But in general I see your point on quality environment.
It would have had to have been good to be a waypoint though, right?
And once it had a rebrand, it will be good, because theyre making an effort?
I’m basically saying in this area at least, there is a lot of competition, so the places are all good. They can’t survive being mediocre or bad.
Pubs, like postboxes, very rarely get reviewed on their individual merit here.
You’ll have to take it up with the collective UK hive mind 
Yeah, but that cant be assumed. It needs to be re-evaluated on its own.
You cant compare pubs to postboxes. People groan about the postboxes but accept the boredom because “moar stops”. Pubs are just universally loved.
But the collective hive mind cant get upset when Niantic steps in and explains criteria.
It doesn’t.
We are too busy sitting in the pub discussing trail markers and postboxes to care about nuffink like yer roolz and regulations, mate.
Can I remind everyone, just in case this ping pong develops, to remain respectful of each other.
All ales I think! They’d be cool ish but not chilled. Chilling drinks is for lager I believe. I don’t like lager.
In the US here so I wasn’t sure. And we do it wrong here as we serve Guiness cold. But I’d be love to Pub hop a bit and try things properly 