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It’s kind of a side-topic to this thread, but it is absolutely true that wider paying attention to “the entire data path” of OSM nodes, ways and relations turning into a rendered map is a real requirement for how the feedback loop of effective mapping happens. Yes, this gives rise our “don’t tag for the renderer” no-no, but it also rears its head when Carto begins to support a tag as a rendered feature: in effect, this says “it is important to get the tagging right on such features, as NOW, they render” in our “standard” renderer, which by doing so, carries some clout on “what is important for Contributors to tag, and how.”

This is a complex topic, as OSM does a certain amount of “trying to hide” the complexities and difficulties of “what is rendered” (OSM is not a map of specific rendering, it is a database), especially by saying “don’t tag for the renderer,” yet at the same time, it (appears to?) influence the way that specific tagging does or will happen, by making choices in the renderer. That feedback (at the end of the pipeline, “a rendered road surface,” for example) reaches all the way back to the mapper, by saying “it is somewhat important to be careful tagging this feature” (because it is rendered). A very tricky balancing act, people like Paul Norman, Joseph Eisenberg and other author-contributors to Carto know quite well.

Again, this is a side topic; back to the main thread.