It looks like there is a new feature implemented in the Polar Alignment procedure, where after alignment is complete, the mount is automatically parked.
I think this feature makes the alignment more tedious - you have to wait till mount slews to parking position, then unpark etc.
This becomes even more problematic if parked position is not pointing to north pole.
Is there any way to disable this feature?

Yes, just unselect 'AutoPark':

Thank you El!

It would actually be very helpful to have an option to have the mount go back to the zero position - especially when you need to redo the alignment to fine tune it.
As it stands now, I always have to go back into the INDI control panels and manually direct the mount to go to the zero (home) position since that option does not exist in KStars or EKOS.
Not a deal-breaker, but just a few more steps then desired since I have to do this every time I use this feature.

Out of sheer curiosity, why not simply revert the motion direction (to east if it was west and vice versa) and start from there? That way the mount will end up in the zero position after the third slew of the second polar alignment routine.

Actually, the whole reason for parking after alignment is complete is to be able to reliably start from the same position so that the measurements are more accurate. For my mount (EQ8 --> EQMod driver), zero and parking position are the same thing hence it makes sense to go to parking to repeat this. PAA would unpark and repeat the process. Perhaps parking does not work for other mounts and instead they need to go to home position, but again not all mounts support this.