I work for/with/teach pro colorists on how to work color in Premiere when they have to. The colorists are mostly based in Resolve, naturally, and so I work in that app also on a near daily basis.
And while there are of course some other users who know how to do stuff I don't in Lumetri, I don't think there's that many. So I'll make a few comments.
First, DO NOT put LUTs in the program/package folder for Premiere. Those folders are tracked in Premiere/Ae/Me by relative position in the folder in their own LUTs folder. And expect all LUTs to be precisely the same for all three apps.
Because they select the folder from metadata, and select the LUT based on it's relative position in the folder after alphanumeric sorting.
Hence, "10th LUT down" not "Blue Moon Rising.cube". Which will between the sorting order and all will get results you neither expect nor want. Remember, if you added to the Premiere package, the LUT folders will not be the same across the three apps. Which makes for a mess if you go between PrPro and MediaEncoder for instance.
So please, for your own sanity, use the second location you tried. Or, as the alternative I prefer, Program folder/Adobe/Common/LUTs. Create the extra subfolders for Technical, Creative, and Input.
Second ... LUTs are called by colorists to be "the dumbest math out there" ... they're built with "ideal" media, meaning exactly correct exposure/lighting/contrast/color balance. And work ok as long as your media is also correctly exposed, and the scene lit to match the media used to build the LUT.
LUTs will clip and/or crush data without trouble. Which is why pro colorists nearly always apply LUTs in a down-stream node and apply it, then in work previous to that node, "trim" the clip to the exposure/contrast/sat needed to best fit through the LUT. While checking the scopes for data safety. Clipping and/or crushing might not be that visually notable in the Program monitor.
In Premiere, the Basic tab's LUT slot does apply the LUT to the processing chain prior to the controls of that tab. I've complained about that location to the devs for years but ... oh well. The best I've gotten in return is one of their color scientists saying he could see what my point was, and would think about it. A couple years back now. (Long time thinker, eh?)
So I recommend all users use the Creative tab's "Look" slot, as applying a LUT there allows you to use the Basic tab controls to trim the clip for best use through the LUT.
Third ... as you've found, there is a limit to how many LUTs Premiere will recognize. The devs have said they're considering changing this, but ... as to when that might happen, who knows, I'm not holding my breath.
We users have also asked for the ability for their drop-downs to show subfolders. Again, the response has been sort of like "interesting idea, we'll think about it".
But that massive amount of LUTs you've got simply will not be shown at this time. The limit seems to be something a bit over 100 user LUTs. Sorry, but that's what it is.
And ... as a personal comment, from someone with a fair experience in this ... I don't understand having a bajillion LUTs. I could make a completely new "Look" from scratch far faster than searching to browse through a stack like that before selecting one.
I do have a few that I've acquired, but most LUTs I use are for very specific things, I built them, I know exactly what they do, and that they won't mangle my pixels. Which many LUTs out of the big online packs can do.
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