That is a really common way of mapping pedestrian areas. So common that the wiki specifically encourages it https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Tag:highway%3Dpedestrian#How_to_map

Granted ofc anyone can edit the wiki, but in this case it does represent how people map these features. To give a few examples from around the world:
https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/433297951
https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/832568603
https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/107467883
https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/298829373

I don't think that alone is a good reason to remove the pedestrian areas.