Since I, too, am not certain if I'm properly understanding the goal, this may or may not be helpful. There is a built-in Mac command for revealing the contents of folders displayed in a Finder window.
With a Finder window open and set to List View (View > As List), select the desired folders (or all window contents using Command-A), then press Option-[right arrow]. This will expand all folders and their subfolders, thus showing all folder contents. To reverse this—also known as collapsing folders—press Option-[left arrow].
Note, to just expand all selected folders but not subfolders, skip the Option key and use only [right arrow].