Answered: https://www.ni.com/docs/en-US/bundle/labview/page/understanding-url-mappings-and-query-strings-in-web-services-real-time-windows.html?srsltid=AfmBOopGM5Aom7rH3ofPKKWSHNo1Ye6RrmFtwG6Zh_QJFtInuTGsTOJO
Future me (or you) - simply set the Web Service Properties -> HTTP Method VI settings -> URL Mapping to something such as <base url>/path1/path2/:variable1/path3/:variable2 ) and variable1 and variable2 will be passed into the VI as a path parameter rather than the query parameter (eg: <base url>/path1/path2/path3/?variable1=___&variable2=_____ )