Please clarify what is meant by “moving obsidian up one directory”.
Are you essentially saying you are using obsidian as your root working folder for PC work outside of obsidian. Like if you were working on projects you would have a project structure that has sub-directories with the project files like word and power point and you then use obsidian to manage those files or open those files?
I know there is a technique of using symbolic linking that obsidian supports but cauations users about not performing and file or directory maintenance on symbolically linked files and folders, but it sounds more like you are using obsidian vault as your day-to-day storage file system.
In this link I provide a link to the caution notice about using symbolic links as well as how to setup symbolic links. This may be useful to folks that already have an existing vault and a separate eco system for project and work files that are to large to merge into the vault.
Warning Link
Symbolic links and junctions - Obsidian Help
Symbolic Link Usage Link
Linking to external folders and files - Share & showcase - Obsidian Forum
Best Regards
-Tim C.