Back at the height of adding school buildings in CA, I knew an administrator who recommended that the builders leave the sidewalks out in a new collge complex for the first year. He claimed that the students would wear paths into the ground and those were the places to lay the walks. I’m sure he was right, and it saved the lawns from getting ruined.
Hey - George Mason U did exactly that in 1986, I think. It worked - after a year they paved all the paths the students had worn.