This is probably the best place to talk about the directory library, and where the maintainers will listen.
The directory package, while being on Hackage, is distributed with GHC. As such, the a given version of GHC generally only uses one version of directory. I would only expect bug-fix versions to work. For example, GHC 7.4.2 released with directory 1.1.0.2. therefore we don't expect directory 1.2.x.y. to work with GHC 7.4.z. It might, but no assurance.
All that said, I think a patch to make it work with 7.4 is great.
- Mark