In such cases I always compare it to roads and it turns out simple.
So, it is no different than people not familiar with driving (me?) deciding between a service, residential, tertiary, track roads.
If one is not sure, they can leave some default (path?) that best matches what they are mapping, as per wiki, and just like for any other element (lake, fountain, house). Someone more knowledgeable can adjust it later. But, as it stands now, it would stay path forever, even if it isn’t one.
Edit: Lately I’ve been adjusting some climbing routes and via ferratas that are simply added as paths, for a lack of better options. Even now, when via_ferrata is an official tag, not many know about it, it seems. And that makes sense. How would anyone know about new tags, unless they visit at least the wiki regularly? And not many do, I’m sure.
While this might be true (tourists might need to scramble in the middle of a city if they had too much to drink), scramble is a place where 99.9% of people have to use hands. You can check the photos in the “documenting problems” thread. The T6 path requires hands, unless you can fly.
And, amazingly, if I drive from a residential road onto a highway, I don’t have to change anything, yet it is a separate tag.