I don’t know how much effort is too much effort, but I improved my small, concrete front porch by adding red pavers on three sides. That made the porch bigger and more attractive.
A 30” walkway could be lined with 6” square pavers on both sides, to become an impressive 42” wide walkway.
Personally I like to put pavers on a concrete base, so they stay permanently level, and then glue them in place so they don’t shift. However, installing a concrete base is not everyone’s idea of fun — there’s about 8 inches of excavation, 4” of well-compacted gravel, and a wooden framework to contain the concrete. And then dealing with 60 lb. bags of Quikrete.
Or you could just dig down 2” and put the pavers along the edge of the walk.