Total Commander

Basically I suggest to use Directory holist sumbenus both as menus and as items.
It will allow to store related items in compact tree structures, making hotlist behave more like a Breadcrumb bar.

Maybe it even could be integrated with native TC Breadcrumbs by adding an option in hotlist configuration dialog to expand a folder from path set like
cd drive:\path\somedir\
so instead of submenu items it will show subdirs of <somedir> in a breadcrumb.

Support++

Unfortunately standard menus recognize click on a submenu and expand its contents in case when menus have large delay, i.e. you can click * button, hover a submenu with mouse and click it, then move mouse to the next item...

2MVV
But appearance of submenu after delay shouldn't somehow break execution of a command (as from example, cd drive:\path\somedir\) of parent menu on which we click with LMB or Enter key, right?
If yes, I don't think it's a critical issue, especially if it's possible to make a delay for submenu opening configurable.