Well, I live near a larger city (Atlanta) and there are several hobby shops around. Some are a long drive but, in Atlanta, you have long drives where ever you go. It has been my experence that the help in the LHS' varies widly. The one closest to me is VERY, VERY good. They've been in buisness over 25 years and all of their help tend to be very savy and helpful on most aspects of the hobby from racing mini's to heli's. If one of the guys does not know something they will hand you off to someone who does. It's not unusual to have two or three people helping you out. They are also reasonably honest about their reccomendations on vehicles and parts/upgrades.
Other stores have downright unfriendly help and many more just hire whatever minimum wage help the can find. Of the 7 or 8 hobby shops I can think of there are two that I trust and a third that's ok. The rest I don't go to unless it's as a last resort.
To sum it up, I think to say that all lhs' have bad help is the same as saying all r/c'ers are stuck up snobs. It's your frustration letting you make too broad a generalazation and it's just not always true.