I propose that similar to how dispensersTillSoil is an available rule that allows farmland to be made using a dispenser with a hoe, there should be an equivalent rule for shovels that converts dirt related blocks into path blocks.

For situations in which this could be used:

• Converting rooted dirt into dirt without the creation of hanging roots
• Converting rooted dirt into path blocks in order to prevent reconversion to moss
• 100% consistent method to convert podzol and mycelium into dirt blocks (you can't turn podzol nor mycelium into farmland directly).
  • For podzol and mycelium, this allows you to further convert it into mud
  • For mycelium, dirt is safer to move in blast chambers (no risk of mycelium decaying or dirt converting back into mycelium in front of an observer).

@Malachi-lewis

You're missing the best use-case of this, unstackable item sorting.

You're so right, I forgot about this! The shovel presses a dirt block, which causes an observer to trigger, pushing a piston face onto the path, and funneling the shovel away. The only problem is that this would also catch hoes, but as farmland has different properties than path blocks, something can be figured out.

I personally would also like if pickaxes would be able to crack blocks so that we could sort them as well.

Got any ideas on how this could be used in a machine? At the moment, as far as I'm aware, it is impossible to regenerate cracked blocks. Meaning that you'll have a limited amount of pickaxes you can catch in your item filter.

You're missing the best use-case of this, unstackable item sorting. I personally would also like if pickaxes would be able to crack blocks so that we could sort them as well.