help in subdirectory of sites/all/modules does not work

What is it about sites/all/modules that is magic for exported help modules. I've created a clean install of drupal 6 with only the modules necessary to test helpinject. If I put my exported module in sites/all/modules then it works fine. If I create a sites/all/modules/somedir directory and put it in there, it does not. It still shows in advanced help, but the popups don't appear because ... and this is weird ... this function in the exported help module ...

function test_help_step_form(&$element, $form_id, $callback) {
  foreach (element_children($element) as $child) {
    test_help_step_form($element[$child], $form_id . ':' . $child, $callback);
  }
  $callback($element, $form_id);
}

genderates different values for $form_id depending upon where the module is installed!! Scary. I don't see any of the cck fields in the list when it's in a subdirectory of sites/all/modules.

Any help or ideas are greatly appreciated.