On https://firewalld.org/documentation/configuration/directories.html , near the bottom of the page:
"If there is no /etc/firewalld directory of if it there is no configuration in there, firewalld will start using the default configuration and default settings for firewalld.conf."
Probably should read:
"If there is no /etc/firewalld directory or if there is no configuration in there, firewalld will start using the default configuration and default settings for firewalld.conf."