I have the "automatically jump to a folder" setting turned on in my editor's file browser (Emacs with Helm), and it works much better than you're predicting - I

I have the "automatically jump to a folder" setting turned on in my editor's file browser (Emacs with Helm), and it works much better than you're predicting - I rarely end up more folders down than I am shooting for, I don't need to invest much mental energy into prediction, and if I make a mistake, navigating up again is a single chord. I think you're underestimating how efficient your brain can get at guesstimating how many characters are required to navigate to a directory, especially when the directory structure is familiar (at which point I virtually never overshoot). And, I still find value in this feature despite being a fast typist (90 WPM).