I support the hybrid tagging approach, at least in cases where there really is a "front of park" section. Here is an example of a nearby park where I used this scheme: https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/1302389330

In that case there is definitely a leisure=park there, though the location in this changeset is more borderline. Some of the other locations in questions have no amenities at all except for perhaps a small dirt parking lot, so in those cases I would say there shouldn't be a leisure=park subarea.