Neither would you pass through underground gates at Farringdon coming via Stevenage, or Finsbury Park. Charging extra for Kings Cross (only) for the mixed mode premium would be consistent with what is done elsewhere, but weren't we originally talking about differentiation for Liverpool Street and Kings Cross for journeys that end in London.
Yes we were. But the complication is, people who do Cambridge to some other destination in London without ever using the exit gates at any London terminus (such as, touch in at Cambridge, touch out at Tottenham Court Road or at White City, etc.). Unless you provide pink validators, you have no idea whether the person has travelled via Stevenage or via Bishops Stortford, so have no idea which routing to charge for.
You'll never ompletely replicate the current fares structure with contactless. Most people using contactless won't be aware of the fares they're being charged anyway and are highly unlikely to be swayed by a slightly differential fare on a particular route.Indeed, so you remove the price differential and just charge the same fare. Is there a capacity need to continue to push passengers via Bishops Stortford once all the revenue goes to the same place?
That said, every possible journey will have a default route. If desired an alternative route can be determined either by a pink validator (for a cheaper fare than the default)or by touches at an intermediate barrier lines en-route when changing (for a more expensive or cheaper journey).
In the specific case of Cambridge you could charge a more expensive fare by changing at Kings Cross or St Pancras or a cheaper fare by changing at Tottenham Hale or Liverpool Street. I suspect that only cheaper fares to Liverpool Street would exist in reality, fares to an underground station would probably be the same whichever route was taken.
The other thing to consider is daily caps as I don't think there's any facility for a differential cap delending on the route taken.