Shared Logic Pro files from a friend’s NAS can’t be loaded in Logic Pro…it doesn’t see all parts on my local drive

My friend set up a NAS and when he saves LogicPro files directly to that drive on his network, I can download them (using QNAP Cloud Desktop). Some of the associated parts (like some of the WAV files in the Samples sub-folder) are (confirmed) right there in my local copy, but LogicPro hangs and then gives a message that it can’t find the files on [insert name of my friend’s NAS here]. It appears as if the download comes over with path information that Logic Pro interprets as a required path versus knowing to look in the directory on my (local) MAC. I have questions:

1. is there a way to force Logic Pro to ONLY look for component files and sub folders in the local directory on my Mac? I’ve looked in the settings and it seems not to be in there (or it’s not obvious). It seems like it should be smart enough to know the subfolders (like for Samples) are right there (I’ve checked…the actual files are there, not just pointers to his NAS). Can someone at LogicPro explain this, or maybe fix it if it’s really getting confused by path information it should be ignoring?
2. Since when does path information come over like this anyway? I mean, knowing there are sub-folders…sure, but having information about which networked drive on someone elses’ machine is truly hardcoded into the downloaded files? Who would ever want that?
3. As one possible solution, has anyone got a suggestion for a good, and SECURE way for me to remotely connect to my friend’s NAS server? I have suggested he could set up a private VPN but he’s concerned about vulnerabilities. He’s in a network security-adjacent career (and I’m not), and it’s HIS network and NAS…so, are there other ways he can let me be truly connected to his NAS as if I was sitting on his network so Logic Pro (and Finder) on my machine could see his NAS drive as part of my network?

NOTE: I know of one workaround…and it’s been covered in the community already. It’s for him to save his versions of things to his MAC and not work with the live files on the NAS. Then, when it’s time for me to get the file, he can just copy it from his Mac to the NAS. Seems like a pain, but I can’t think of another way to get this work without him figuring out a solution…or if Logic Pro can be forced to look locally on my machine.