>Some of those other changes I can do, but some I don't know if i'll bother with (like treating folder names differently than any other text in the path)
Nah theres no need for that indeed, since it already relocates the files every time a change in those tags is done. I actually noticed this soon after I posted my comment but forgot to edit sorry about that.
As for the directory issue the problem was that I didn't had 2 matching files for bodies and portraits. Since the editor will have an option to create portraits selected from a whole body image, I had neglected to put images in the portraits folder.
While Im at it, though I didnt want to post it in this thread, your most recent version of the mod is buggy. It no longer has the random portrait button and males show up with female images.