How do I create a collaboration on a subfolder if the higher folder already has one of lower permission?

I run this command (numbers changed for amusement)

box collaborations:create [removed by moderator] folder --user-id= [removed by moderator] --role=editor --notify

I get this error:

user_already_collaborator - User is already a collaborator

The user is a collaborator: viewer on the parent-folder 3 levels higher. I want them to be able to edit items in this lower level folder. In the UI, I can do this. In the box:cli, I cannot. The closest I came to working was AI suggesting I create a folder+user group for each folder/user combination and add that as a new collaborator for the lower folder. While this probably would work, I want to do this for hundreds of folders, and I don’t want to pollute my group list.

I’ve tried --login instead of --user-id. I have tried --no-notify, and --notify. I have tried --can-see-path. I have tried everything the buggy AIs have suggested, all with no change.