diff --git a/context.go b/context.go
index bddc2f1..0b41079 100644
--- a/context.go
+++ b/context.go
@@ -520,26 +520,9 @@ func (c *Context) trace(node *Node) (err error) { // nolint: gocyclo
 			return fmt.Errorf("unexpected token %s", token)
 		}
 	}
-	if err := c.traceDefaults(); err != nil {
-		return fmt.Errorf("error tracing defaults: %w", err)
-	}
 	return c.maybeSelectDefault(flags, node)
 }
 
-func (c *Context) traceDefaults() error {
-	tail := c.Path[len(c.Path)-1]
-	for _, positional := range tail.Node().Positional {
-		if positional.DefaultValue.IsValid() {
-			positional.Active = true
-			c.Path = append(c.Path, &Path{
-				Parent:     tail.Node(),
-				Positional: positional,
-			})
-		}
-	}
-	return nil
-}
-
 // End of the line, check for a default command, but only if we're not displaying help,
 // otherwise we'd only ever display the help for the default command.
 func (c *Context) maybeSelectDefault(flags []*Flag, node *Node) error {
@@ -549,7 +532,6 @@ func (c *Context) maybeSelectDefault(flags []*Flag, node *Node) error {
 		}
 	}
 	if node.DefaultCmd != nil {
-		node.Active = true
 		c.Path = append(c.Path, &Path{
 			Parent:  node.DefaultCmd,
 			Command: node.DefaultCmd,
diff --git a/kong_test.go b/kong_test.go
index a96432c..e7a5ba0 100644
--- a/kong_test.go
+++ b/kong_test.go
@@ -4,8 +4,6 @@ import (
 	"bytes"
 	"errors"
 	"fmt"
-	"os"
-	"path/filepath"
 	"strings"
 	"testing"
 
@@ -1986,16 +1984,3 @@ func TestEnumPtrOmittedNoDefault(t *testing.T) {
 	assert.NotZero(t, ctx)
 	assert.Zero(t, cli.X)
 }
-
-func TestTrailingPositionalActive(t *testing.T) {
-	var cli struct {
-		Arg string `arg:"" default:"." existingdir:"testdata"`
-	}
-	pwd, err := os.Getwd()
-	assert.NoError(t, err)
-	k, err := kong.New(&cli)
-	assert.NoError(t, err)
-	_, err = k.Parse([]string{})
-	assert.NoError(t, err)
-	assert.Equal(t, cli.Arg, filepath.Join(pwd, "testdata"))
-}