so I'm trying to use the automated wordpress installation but it's insisting I create it in a folder...

"The length of folder is between 3 and 16."

the site is www.watsonqualityblog.com

I don't want it to be www.watsonqualityblog.com/blog or anything redundant like that.

Should I just manually install wordpress myself? It's not difficult, but it's just faster to press a button without having to download, FTP upload, figure out the DB info, go through the few steps, and then be finished.

Our auto-installations do not allow WordPress to be installed into the root.
You can either

1. Install it manually as you suggested
2. Install it using http://vanity.netsolhost.com/blog, point your domain to that folder, and correct all of the internal WordPress settings.

that means you change your blog URL and wordpress URL inside the wordpress dashboard first before repointing your domain to that blog folder.

of which, that can be seen inside the dashboard, on settings>general.