This! A hundred times this!
People use the (IMO slightly troublesome practice) of Duck Tagging highway=cycleways (often, as the only tag) to indicate ways (otherwise mostly tagged as =paths, I suppose) that are particularly suitable for bicycles. The implicit idea is that a way tagged with =cycleway must be wide and smooth enough for a normal bicycle to handle.
In my mind it directly follows from that very assumption that a way with only a highway=path tag must represent the absolute pariah class of ways. This is because—unlike with e.g. cycleway and footway—very little if anything can be truth preservingly inferred from the path tag alone. Hence the only reasonable assumption is that it must be a very narrow and non-paved, barely visible path suitable for passage only if one is wearing hiking boots.
However, when I’ve pointed this out earlier, many people found it a problematic stance.