I was so obnoxious to tag the “path” where @Superfebs got lost a highway=route, because the mapper said, there is nothing on the ground and they made it a “grey way” not a “red one”, as if openstreetmap was a paint-book. Not a day after it got retagged a highway=path and will again be rendered red in Tracestack Topo. See Way History: Sentiero 30 (1307520308) | OpenStreetMap and Changeset: 155205011 | OpenStreetMap for discussion.
Mind you, @Superfebs managed to go down a pathless UIAA III route without taking harm. How many of the participants in this topic can claim doing that?
So, yes, highway=path can mean most anything, even immaterial stuff, and that is a fact, as put forward by CAI Salò by reinstating a path where there is none.
Curiously, efforts to tell consumers of this data about that get ridiculed Consuming highway=path, Episode 2 - #3 by Peter_Elderson – All the while consumers are expected to honour these elite tags and for ages they fail to do that. Who is more stubborn, the community or the consumers?