Hi @JK ,
a network share rather than a local path for the snapshot folder
For simple, it is for security, when you use a local service account for your SQL Server service, your server will not automatically have permissions to access to other network resources like UNC paths, such as when you want to perform backups directly to a network share, this is needed to be able, if you want to access to network shares from SQL Server, you need to make some settings.
For permission, you can see this doc:
Replication Agent Security Model
-------------
If the answer is the right solution, please click "Accept Answer" and kindly upvote it. If you have extra questions about this answer, please click "Comment".
Note: Please follow the steps in our documentation to enable e-mail notifications if you want to receive the related email notification for this thread.