Hi rskedgell,

Rule 1 in the "Rules for pedestrians" section of the UK's Highway Code  states: "Pavements and footways (including any path along the side of a road) should be used if provided."
(https://www.gov.uk/guidance/the-highway-code/rules-for-pedestrians-1-to-35)

To me this sounds like an almost perfect application for the foot=use_sidepath tag. 
https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Tag:foot%3Duse_sidepath

In your feedback on my changesets, you mentioned:
1) that (in the UK) "Pedestrians use highways by absolute right unless explicitly forbidden". But this is in line with the foot=use_sidepath tag, which "applies only to roads with a classification that allows pedestrian use" (according to the foot=use_sidepath wiki entry)
2) that "This tag should only be applied in countries that have compulsory footways." (according to the foot=use_sidepath wiki entry). But this seems to be in line with the Highway Code. 

And in any case, the sentence "This tag should only be applied in countries that have compulsory footways." in the wiki entry was added by a single user (Mikebag) with no user page on the wiki or corresponding OSM or OSM Forum account and no mention about why this was done on the Talk page. From the edit description it seems that this sentence was simply re-used from bicycle=use_sidepath wiki entry, reason unknown. If you know more, let me know.
https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/w/index.php?title=Tag%3Afoot%3Duse_sidepath&diff=2161228&oldid=2095519
So we can further debate whether the use of the foot=use_sidepath tag should hinge so strongly on this sentence, or whether the sentence should be there at all.

I only added the foot=use_sidepath tags to roads where the sidewalks were mapped separately.

Maybe I am missing something. If we can't agree here, then maybe this should become a discussion in the United Kingdom category on the OSM Forum.

And as a second point, I appreciate the feedback on changesets in general, I think it helps a lot when people engage like this, and not enough people are doing this. But I'm not an armchair mapper, and I don't know why you would assume as much. I was in London recently and tried to improve the map in the areas where I walked around (including adding sidewalks, POIs, etc.). Maybe tone down the aggression in the comments a tad, e.g. "In what way is ... a big improvement?" (https://www.openstreetmap.org/changeset/167444504#c1464805). Most of us are trying to improve the map, just like you. 

As you suggested, going forward I'll put some more effort into adding the sidewalk$side=separate tag onto streets.

Cheers!