Firstly, don't be too hard on this guy without knowing the details. Sounds like he was inexperienced, certainly. But he may have just gone for a local jolly, so not bothered to draw a line on his chart; then the vis got worse... He may have been intending to follow a line feature, but lost it. He may have gone out to practise nav without any lines on his map, in preparation for a diversion - I've done that, it's quite useful practice. But whatever the scenario, being lost, overloaded, and scared can get your brain to the point that you hardly know your own name, never mind where you are - and carrying on a sensible conversation becomes very hard.
My experience of using D & D in earnest was a few weeks after I got my PPL(A). I flew from Welshpool to Oxford, met a friend for lunch, and started to fly back. Because I thought the cloudbase had lowered, I planned to head North to the Telford area, then West. The vis got worse, I got lost, I blundered around for maybe half an hour as I was scared to tell anyone, then told London Info I was lost. They told me to call D & D, who within 30 seconds told me: "You're three miles south of Birmingham Airport. Can you call them on ...." My initial reaction was; "Oh no, I can't call Birmingham; they'll kill me!" But they didn't of course. A very calm, kind ATCO directed me via the motorway system back to the M54 in the direction of Telford. He gently tried to persuade me to land at Halfpenny Green (now Wolverhampton) when he realised the vis was close to VFR limits, but didn't push it when I refused (stupidly, with hindsight!). When I thanked him profusely for his help, saying I was very new to flying and really not up to coping with all that had happened, he asked if I wanted to stay with him as long as I could, saying it was quite OK if I didn't feel up to talking to someone new yet. So understanding, and so very very kind! In fact I was OK by then, and I went back to London Info, who recognised either my voice or the callsign, and gently teased me about the whole thing.
That whole episode was a great learning experience for me. It also stopped me being scared of talking on the radio. And yes, D & D are wonderful. And so are many other ATCOs, in situations where we really need them. They may not like you being in their airspace unannounced. But if you are, they'd rather you talked to someone so that they can get you safely back on your way home and/or on the ground
(If anyone is interested, this account was published in more detail as a ILAFFT - "Lost Over Birmingham" - in Pilot, Jan 2001)