Yes, this is something I’ve learned since as I’ve gotten to know Cubase a little better.
It seems to me that the dialog for creating a new project could be a little more user friendly in this fashion. It should give you the option of naming both the directory (if a new one is to be used) and the project name in the same dialog. I’ve since learned how to make sure I get properly named directories, but this is probably something newbies run into all the time. In any case, very good advice - thanks.