I don't have much added, but following the install instructions of the (freeware) developers, I have found some differences. Some Add-On Folders contain an additional Subfolder some others do not. So the structure looks like:

Community (Folder)
    Add-On Title (Folder)
        Another Title (Folder)
            ContentInfo (Folder)
            Scenery (Folder)
            layout.json
            ...

vs

Community (Folder)
    Add-On Title (Folder)
        ContentInfo (Folder)
        Scenery (Folder)
        layout.json
        ...

Why is this? Does it have any consequences? Does it matter at all how it is structured? I've not yet experienced any issues, I'm simply curious.

 

 

Most likely what you're seeing is because people differ in how they zip up their packages.  Some do it from within the package directory, others from the Community directory itself.  If you use an "unzip into directory" option that names a directory for the zip file, you'll see one of those two examples depending on how it was packaged.

Regardless of how it's packaged, unless you are using something like Addons Linker, everything must have its manifest.json and layout.json in the directory immediately under Community, as per your second example.

Your second example is the way mods installed to Community need to be.

If you use the AddonLinker software, you can choose any directory you want to install, and use subdirectores to organize your files.

When I have accidentally dragged over an addon folder that is two layers deep to the json files (like your first example), that addon hasn't worked for me.  As the other have said, it should be one layer deep only.

If the example that is two layers deep has worked for you, I am curious, unless Asobo have changed something recently to allow a deeper scan of the community folder.

Either way, I would stick to example 2 as the currently accepted standard. 

Yeah I think it depends on the unzipper.  For the liveries I've done one or two people couldn't get it to work.  I had a readme txt and the correct folder in the zip.  I think sometimes an unzipper makes a new folder above the readme and livery folder and that causes the issues.