two hours later i still wonder why
echo %%~fF >> file.txt
does not list the entire subdirectories as opposed to echo %%~fF

batch is weird.

it turned out it wasn't batch being wierd but me too dumb to handle recursion.

fml, the script did not write all folders into one file, but one file in every subfolder. and yes, i let it run at work on a crowded drive. yay.