No it isn't - it's bad communication between the DM and the player. You'd have the same problem with someone bringing a paladin to a piracy campaign.
Lots of paladins work fine in a piracy campaign.
Some might not.
I don't really agree with that. It's tantamount to also saying a DM doesn't need to do any work to integrate the agendas of the PCs or customize anything for the class mix at all.
If the DM is doing any work to customize for his mix of players and their PCs, then engaging in a little work to help the ranger's abilities shine is not really extra. It's the same appropriate diligence he's engaging in for everything else.
No, it isn't tantamount.
I'm saying that from level 1 to level 2, if the DM doesn't inject into the game stuff aimed directly at the Ranger PC's build choices, the Ranger PC is literally "another class with fewer abilities".
No other class has that feature. None. Zilch.
"Little work" -- the abilities literally do
nothing unless they dictate what territory and monsters the DM uses.
And what is worse, as many people have shown, if they do dictate what territory and monsters the DM uses, the Ranger ends up about as good as the Wizard is at low levels, and progressively gets worse at the knowledge checks compared to wizards or lore bards or rogues who want to know things. And the other feature either removes exploration challenges from the game, or does nothing if you want to cross different terrain than you picked.
So
even in games where the DM does pick monsters and terrain to suit the Ranger starting at level 1, the features don't shine.
It would be like if Paladin divine smite only worked on undead and fiends, and it gave you an advantage on charisma attribute checks for the next minute on the smited creature (no damage!). Except that is the only feature Paladins got at level 1, and they lost heavy armor. Ok ok, we can also give them "True believer: select a faith. You can ignore paperwork requirements when working with that faith as they recognize you as a true believer, and your tithing costs to stay in good graces with that church are halved."
Could you make a game where that is useful? Yes. Does it take a lot of work for the DM and constrain the campaign? Ayep. Are there lots of campaigns where it would be utterly irrelevant? Yes.