Timestamps are preserved between program exits.
When a file is written to a directory, the directory time is updated.
It did not seem to be the case at first.
It seemed like folders did not change place on howeverwhich.com.

If the contents of a folder recieve a new item, the timestamp of the folder should be updated.
If a subfolder of a folder within a folder recieves an item, the outermost folder should not be updated.
When a new file is recieved, the folder containing it is updated with the new time.

If Filezilla preserve timestamps are not enabled, the file is written with the newest date when it is recieved on the remote server.
They do seem to persist between program exits; the option is enabled.  I must have disabled the option once to check it, and I re-enabled it.

Tar on the other hand, handles filestamps differently.  The options set in my command in xdev.zip/ preserve timestamps when the tar file is extracted.  

Lowercase Tar
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Tar run by linux by default is lowercase.  My version is uppercase.  But, when I start a sentence with a coding word, I capitalize it even if it is explicitly lowercase relating to code.  I have taken on that style of writing.

Tar is also different than ZIP.  Zip files cannot contain a symbolic link to another file.  That's basically a reference to that file: when the file is opened, the other file it references is opened.  Tar archives can contain symbolic links, and when they're extracted the symbolic links work!

Certain options enabled in my custom command enable timestamps to be preserved, so I can keep my directory structure which is based on timestamps.