Pillager patrols will spawn around villages, and will orbit the villages. During this slow process, the pillager patrols keep getting stuck on cliffs, trapped in lakes/rivers, and fall into ravines or just keep on trying to cross them, while they orbit the village. Due to them not ever really make their way to the villages, their main purpose is pretty much defeated.

On the contrary, however, I have seen them eventually make their way around, up, through, or just past the obstacles. It is just that since they take so long to get past these obstacles, they usually despawn before they can even get to the village.

The problem is mainly that it takes so long to get to the village, not the pathfinding. The pathfinding works, it is just innifishient. The only exception to the pathfinding not being the problem is cliffs. The illager beasts and pillagers cannot find a way up the cliffs, simply because there is no way for them. They need to be able to find a way to penetrate the villages defenses, not wander up halfway a hill that they can't get over.

Also, if these attacks on the villages occur even after the player has defeated the beasts, then the players will want to make some defenses. I have done so, and all the beasts do is run into the walls that they can't go through, and the pillagers just stand still. The raids should be able to find their way to a gate instead of wandering into the walls.