I mean, can I use was:amenity to tag a POI that has been used for another amenity currently, and was used for a different amenity before, for example, space former amenity took up is now leased to a new business? Is it OK, even if it’s against Key:was:amenity - OpenStreetMap Wiki definitions?
(deliberately not answering “is it OK” but) some people do, and some projects** do process that in some circumstances.
** both of those are mine 
In general life cycle prefixes are ok to use, but it might get tricky, if an object is changing from amenity=restaurant to amenity=fast_food to amenity=cafe to … In OSM you can describe the style of building and the usage. Like building=church and amenity=restaurant for a church used now as restaurant.
Depending on your usecase, OpenHistoryMap might be the better place to add this information.
I personally would have the POI information added to a node or a way representing the POI and have the building information tagged to the building way to keep it separate
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are there visible remains of previous POI? If yes then disused: prefix would work well.
I have been using the “old_name” tag, for businesses that recently changed as you suggested, but also for shops that have been vacant for a long time but still have signs with the old name on them.
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I’m talking about no visual remains, complete takeover by new business, so I think of was:amenity
To clarify, Open History Map is a different project unrelated to OSM. OpenHistoricalMap would love to have this data though.
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then mapping it is out of scope for OpenStreetMap (and “can be mapped from aerial by accident” does not really apply for POIs)
Sometimes I do use this rationale for POIs because of street-level imagery, which gets updated less frequently than aerial imagery.
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oh right, in such case it would make sense (though once street-level imagery usable by OSM is updated or clearly outdated it can and should be removed)
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