I know this isn't exactly what you're looking for, but I put my most frequently used folders in the sidebar of the Finder windows. It gives me easy access to important folders from anywhere in the Finder or from within any other folder in my filesystem, and it's rearrangeable. Folders in the sidebar are aliases to the originals, pointing to the actual locations in your filesystem. I'm not sure where those Favorites aliases themselves are stored.

It won't necessarily help if you keep more than a handful or two of folders there, but if you manage it and clean out infrequently used folders, then it's an alternative.

-awlabrador