Require password for all but one directory?

I have a somewhat odd directory structure for a web site: There is one
directory (call it "foo") where I want to have basic password
authentication working for all of foo's subdirectories >>except one<<,
which needs to be wide open to the public. Rather than setting up
individual <directory ...> entries for each private directory
undeneath foo, I've written one <directory> statement to require
authentication for foo itself, and then have opened up the public
subdirectory with:

<directory /path/to/foo/public>
Satisfy any
</directory>

Can anyone think of a good reason to not do it this way? I'd really
rather not have a whole bunch of directory statements locking up the
individual private subdirectories, but I'm happy to hear advice from
more experienced Apache people.

Thanks,
Jim Miller