SeaSpray - I believe that the answer to your question is Yes. There is a clear path. However, I do not know for certain. But there are new paths and last week I walked from the beach to the GCH, alongside the Lava pool. I also looked to my left when passing Hawaii to look at the large sheet that was covering Samoa's side (stairwell?) and to take a picture of the covered fence around East Pool. People were coming and going and I feel certain that a nice wide path (they've been widened to ADA standards, as has parking lot, a CM told me when I was upgrading some tickets and raving about how wonderful the resort looks

) will lead you directly b/w Hawaii and GCH. I'm not positive b/c I was not looking specifically for that - hopefully someone there now/soon can help
Here are some pics of the new path from GCH
This is the path toward Hawaii, with Samoa on the right and the Lava Pool on the left
Samoa from walkway from GCH/CCs
Garden side of Hawaii with new path (I also sent this to Tikiman)
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Thank you so much for the pictures!!! It really helps to be able to envision the "new" backyard of the Polynesian.
These are the steps that I think I read have been replaced with a level a path to the entrance of the Hawaii building: