With it being possible in 1.17 to create dirt paths from any type of dirt variant, not just grass like it was before, it is possible to ''dupe'' dirt from coarse dirt. This is because you only require 2 dirt to craft coarse dirt. This yields 4 coarse dirt. You can now simply just place the 4 coarse dirt on the ground and make dirt paths out of them, then break them, which will drop normal dirt. You will now be left with 4 dirt, 2 more than you originally had.