But there is only ONE way to split the route in OSM and there are thousands people out there. So which of them is the ONE? If you split the route now based on how you hiked the trail, why should any other mapper not change the split any time later based on his hike? Which of the two splits is more meaningful?
If splitting the PCT in 200 stages because of easier maintenance, then that might be the OSM split and if stage 178 get’s too long, OSM might split it in to stages at any time and PCT will contain 201 stages.
The path/road itself might be maintained by an organization and a hiking club might maintain the signage of the route. So operator=organization will be added to the way and the route-relation will have operator=hiking club.