Solved few questions about windows 11 start menu functionality relative to folders/organization

So, long time open-shell user on windows 10. I had every single solitary shortcut for every single app organized and backed up via the route we all learned to modulate said things %appdata%\microsoft\windows start menu\programs & %programdata%\microsoft\windows\start menu\programs

of course with open shell one could create folders and subfolders and simply drag/drop them around therein.

enter windows 11. open-shell isnt being maintained and that leaves you with the new start menu or one of the active replacements. I went with start11. they allow the creation of folders (havent played with it yet as im planning things out, hence my inquiring here). Best i can tell it operates in the same way that microsoft is going to be adding natively come the summer update. aka you can create folders in the "pinned" area but not in the start menu itself. Manually creating folders in the aforementioned locations seems to allow them to appear in the start menu, but the subfolders are entirely ignored.

i have two questions. 1) how can I get subfolders to appear/work. Is this possible or are subfolders for some inexplicable reason gone for good? leaving you with an unorganized mess entirely reliant on microsoft and the developer who created whatever you've installed. 2) where is the information for created & pinned folders stored? Is there a location similar again to the start menu\programs folders used in 10?

I have some shortcuts in a folder that I parse and use as my path in various portable apps like launchbox with games shortcuts. I put them all in a folder and imported said folder full of shortcuts, but it seems windows 11 is hellbent on blowing up everything. trying to find the best path forward but without knowing if subfolders are possible or relevant, and where information is stored and pulled from theres not much I can do manually, let alone backing things up for the trek through 11 before they undoubtedly change to 12 and drop things on their head in another few years.