The config was looked up by the BIOS folder exactly as typed: a relative --dest, a link or another case sent save-folder files to a guessed folder and refused --installed-cores.
batocera-systems lists bios/saves/dolphin-emu/Triforce/segaboot.gcm, so the pack folder for the save directory is userdata-saves/. validate_schemas refuses a pack folder the BIOS tree already uses.
The installer reads savefile_directory and sort_savefiles_enable from
the retroarch.cfg it found, falls back to saves/ beside a default
system/ folder, and takes --save-dir. Entries it cannot place are said
and left out. The installer hash is re-pinned.