“kids these days don’t understand tree directory structures” i sleep 
“that means they don’t understand URLs” i weep 
if a tree structure is important for your data you can easily handle the problem by wrapping the data in a container and only showing the container to the user. probably a better solution anyway because it means that the computer can enforce good structure at the container boundary. who cares
however, there is one other domain where the concept of a “path” is relevant, other than the filesystem… and it’s kind of important…
anyway the idea that Zoomers will replace the tree directory structure is kind of hilar; i don't think the author realizes that people have been trying to replace the tree directory structure for a half-century and the reason they haven't done it yet is that it's really fucking hard
plus a filesystem path is a much more human-friendly identifier than a UUID but this is the URL thing again