I guess, but it seems pretty typical to expect to install a new software or start a new project and require some form of loading/importing content in. It wouldn't exactly destroy the experience or at least the trade-off seems worth it imo
A few people have suggested adding a blacklist for dangerous directories or validating directories are empty first.
Why not just make the API create a new directory rather than selecting one? There's still a risk people create a directory in a shared location - but at least they're only risking the new directory then, right?