Not free (or 'free') but there is a commercial app that does this very well indeed - Stardock Groupy. It was bundled in with something else I bought years ago and I just leave it running as it's quite handy.
Their 'Fences' app is excellent (which was the app I bought the bundle for).
In particular, the ability to create a view on the desktop onto another folder. This lets me split my desktop into 'local' and 'cloud' areas by having a fence containing a view onto a Google Drive-hosted folder.
https://www.stardock.com/products/groupy/