In the case of a trail the landowner is actively trying to erase, I'll often draw the trail into osm, tag it discouragingly, and put barrier nodes at each end. Across a wide variety of map rendering, this has a chance of communicating the intent of non-use.
The downside of omitting, removing, or disusing the trail is that someone might physically see what's left and simply assume it's an unmapped route. --- In rock climbing routes, the entire route is graded according to the hardest move. Perhaps in the case of unmaintained (but legally open) trails, one could tag (and thus render) the trail condition based on the least passable section. The utility of the route reduces to the ability to get over the (landslide, muddy part, weeds, washed out bridge).
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