I can definitely see where this would be an advantage, in trying to find the images that you're trying to delete or use. That can be actually accomplished right now with a little bit of work, however the amount of chaos something like this could create must also be considered.

To accomplish this today, all you would have to do once you add the image, is just go and edit the URL directly of the product level, yes I know a pain in the butt.

Imagine a summary page being loaded where product images are scattered across multiple categories directories, since Google is extremely concerned about mobile speed, this could create slowdowns in delivering content to the user, a big no-no for Google.

Not to mention, this might also mess up AbleCommerce's "Product Image Lookup by SKU" feature.

However, all is not lost here, there might be a way for you to have your cake and eat it too.

Add the ability to search images by "Alt tags" and Names. This might be a better solution for AbleCommerce to implement.

Please know that I break up my images in multiple subdirectories, just for this purpose, however, all my product images are in the same subdirectory.

I have a subdirectory specifically for logos, front page images, contact images, and blogs, again to make it easier to find things.

Do you think the search feature will work for you?