This question was asked before (ticket #108171), but I'm asking it again, since I'm struggling with it too:
I want certain profiles / usergroups to upload their images by default in a predefined folder, but allow them to navigate to folders above. So the default folder should be a starting point, not an endpoint.
I know how to set a default folder for a user / user group, but then the user is stuck to only that folder and can't browse outside that folder.

My scenario is the following: I have editors on my site who are in charge of posting news. They have access to the images folder and folders below. We post a lot of news, so I tell the editors not to upload to the images folder, but preferably to images/stories/news (or even better: images/stories/news/$year/$month). Some editors don't care and don't even go to the file browser, but just drag and drop images, resulting in a huge images folder full of clutter. So I would the default to be images/stories/news/$year/$month for those editors, but allowing alle editors to browse and select a previously uploaded image for reuse, preventing unnecessary duplicate files. (Or, if they're not posting news, but a review they've written, to upload the image to a folder like images/stories/reviews/books/)

And what is the difference between Editor parameters > Filesystem > File path and Plugin parameters > Image manager > File path. It seems that the plugin in overruling the editor settings. So is there any need to set the editor file path if you set the plugin file path?