path: reduce path code size

This is mainly a code cleanup. It reduces the overall code size and code indentation of the path module and since it's quite complicated code, I thought it makes sense to try to have the code base as small and readable as possible.

The performance is pretty much identical. There are a view small plus or minus percent on some cases without any clear performance difference. I changed the benchmarks as well to better reflect actual user input.

Checklist

• make -j4 test (UNIX), or vcbuild test (Windows) passes
• tests and/or benchmarks are included
• documentation is changed or added
• commit message follows commit guidelines