I won’t pretend else.
The desktop launcher thing might fit nicely in some DE. You may also use a graphical utility like menulibre to create needed launchers ( and actions which are kind of sub-menus for launchers… )
[Desktop Entry]
Name=My most important folder
Exec=xdg-open /path/to/'your important folder'
Icon=folder
Terminal=false
Type=Application
Actions=other-folder-1;other-folder-2;other-folder-3;other-folder-4;
[Desktop Action other-folder-1]
Name=Open this
Exec=xdg-open /path/to/other-folder-1
[Desktop Action other-folder-2]
Name=Open that
Exec=xdg-open /path/to/other-folder-2
[Desktop Action other-folder-3]
Name=Open other this
Exec=xdg-open /path/to/other-folder-3
[Desktop Action other-folder-4]
Name=Open other that
Exec=xdg-open /path/to/other-folder-4
…and here is 1 launcher for 5 folders ( or files also, if you need ).