i originally had a pattern path for my first NL town, but then i wanted to use the slots for clothes, and i decided i preferred the look of the dirt paths, so i have those on both my towns now. i bordered them with bushes and flowers lol. bit of a pain when villagers would move in on them, but i ended up not caring too much.
Pattern paths :> I never got the hang of dirt paths, it just confused me how to properly organize where the paths would go and being able to keep certain areas fresh, it also seemed like a lot of running. I made my own simple brick path and have been pretty happy using it in my town, it takes up basically an entire custom design inventory though, so one of my side accounts is just, path man.
My main town uses a pattern path but returning to new leaf for the event has made me remember how much of a pain it was (cant put anything down on top, miss picking something up and erasing a square ect.) If i had to start a new town I think I'd try natural dirt paths instead.
I think dirt paths look very nice but they are way tough to keep up with. The patterns are nice to have in combination with the dirt paths. I could choose both options because I love how they look in combination with each other. I personally used patterns on New Leaf since I couldn’t be bothered with keeping up with dirt paths. Both are physically appealing to me in their own way, though.
No paths. I didn't really know paths were a thing people did in New Leaf, and I kinda just ran all over the place in my town anyways. Honestly, after getting to enjoy how New Horizons does have a way to let you properly set paths on your island, it would be hard for me to ever want to try and utilize pattern paths in New Leaf and earlier games.