What is a golden path, and what distinguishes it from a mandated standard?

Why this is the answer

A golden path is the well-lit route: pre-integrated, documented and maintained, so that following it is genuinely the easiest option — and because it is chosen rather than imposed, its adoption rate is honest feedback about whether it is good. Blocking at admission makes it a mandate, a document that nobody maintains gives none of the integration benefit, and a migration plan is a rollout mechanism rather than what the path itself is.