That is because you have a certain understanding of “path” that does not match that of others. And that is what we are trying to clarify here.
If you look at Documenting the problems with `highway=path` - #10 by _MisterY, you will see what path means for different people. And gets tagged appropriately in OSM. The others may expect to find their version of “path” when they get there and that poses a real problem.
I find that the differences between these types of paths are way bigger than any one can find between a primary and a service road. Yet, that distinction is so important that it deserves a different tag, whereas these are all fine to be distinguished with 10 different secondary tags. Why not use subtag “importance=primary” on a road?
- People get lost because they can’t follow the terrain for whatever reason (thread on alpinist paths…)
- Paths get deleted because “there’s nothing there”, even though they exist on historic maps and there is an occasional cairn. For some, that is enough, for others not.