You went to adventure prob
You can't turn any dirt into paths. It needs to be grass
I believe this is due to the fact that if you hold an item with you cursor and close a GUI including your inventory it drops the item even if you closed it because you died.
If a block takes a multiple of 4 ticks to mine then you can do it in survival.
If you jump to reach a block well holding left click then when you fall back down you'll get a static breaking animation as well, at least sometimes.
Same thing happens with the heads of spectators
You aren't supposed to be able to sprint with blindness. Swimming is sprinting under water.
Can confirm aswell