People will ALWAYS take the shortest path, walking from street-side parking across your lawn. At some point near the door this will result in soil compaction and grass that grows poorly. I think it is both thoughtful and prudent to provide a path to your entry. A sidewalk can be as narrow as 36". A more comfortable width is 42". Not sure if your city has any restrictions against this, but I would extend your sidewalk all the way to the street.

That

sounds like a great idea! Our house had a path paralleling the driveway up to a front patio but not directly to the front door so we added one and did put in a few steps to accommodate the slope and love being able to go directly to the front door.

In our case we have a short slumpblock fence in front so we had to keep the starting place the same but you can put in one anywhere. A garden hose makes a good marker to layout and help visualize where you want your path to be.