Re indirect path - yes I think so, because as we've evolved from simple symmetrical segmented creatures (like worms) and, in the case of the aorta, as that structure has moved down into the chest, it dragged the L recurrent laryngeal with it. The giraffe is the most striking example because it has evolved such a long neck. Embryology often shows you evolution sped up billionfold as the embryo develops - the early embryo human is pretty symmetrical and has rudimentary gill slits separating branchial arches which then become things like the ear, jaw, larynx... and so on. Not infrequently bits get left behind and may appear later as e.g. pits in front of and slightly below the ear, often with rudimentary auricles, branchial cleft cysts a little beneath the angle of jaw, thyroid in the tongue or between it and its normal location below the larynx, and there are other reminders of our heritage like... well, I'll leave that for a potential question of the day.
If anyone is interested in evolution then a great and accessible book is "The greatest show on earth" by Richard Dawkins, marred only by his banging on about how misguided people are if they believe in religion -vs- evolution. He is as evangelical on that as any creationist, which seems unnecessary as I doubt that people who genuinely believe that the world was created in 7 days would be reading his books.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recurrent_laryngeal_nerve