All that being said, the goal of openstreetmap is to map what is on the ground, and that is irrefutably 2 different paths with 2 different properties. It should be up to the routing engine to determine what path best to take.
I suggest adding back the southern path with the trail_visibility=no tag, in addition to surface quality and potentially define access to encourage routing engines to make the best choice.
I will leave this issue open for a while, If i have no response i will take the liberty of resolving this issue myself, please do suggest what you believe is the best solution here.
Again, my intention here is not hostile in any way, i simply would like to resolve this rather benign issue.
(2/2)