flexslider library logic fails when library directory is not writable

When determining where the flexslider library is installed, the flexslider_library() function does an extra file_prepare_directory() on the path provided by the libraries module.

In my case on my server, the libraries folder is *not* writable by the user running apache, and i dont think this is an uncommon situation. I have flexslider library installed in sites/all/libraries, but because "file_prepare_directory" fails, it always falls back to the (nonexistent) copy of flexslider provided by the module.

This is the code in question:

function flexslider_library() {
  $path = drupal_get_path('module', 'flexslider');

  // If the library isn't found in Drupal, fall back to a copy of the library
  // included with the module.
  $library_path = libraries_get_path('flexslider');
  $library_fullpath = $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'] . base_path() . $library_path;
  if (empty($library_path) || !file_prepare_directory($library_fullpath)) {
    $library_path = $path . '/libraries/flexslider';
  }
 // ...

Why should this module need to have write abilities to a third-party library directory?