How can I control the file system path used by lxc import commands to avoid failures?

You can create a custom volume on your desired storage pool using:

lxc storage volume create <pool> <volume name> size=nGB

And then specify it for use with backups:

lxc config set storage.backups_volume <pool>/<volume name>

It doesn’t have to be the same pool you’re importing into.

See Server configuration - LXD documentation for more server configuration options.