Yeah, ZBS is looking for a bunch of folders and seems not to find the lib he needs.
It works with me, did you try the following:
Make a Clean installation from the ZIP you got directly from the Github Repro.
Only add the following files into the "packages" subfolder (sample.lua is inside there already)
luadist.lua (Downloaded also directly from github)
ESOAddon.lua (from my ZIP)
This way it worked on my machine flawless, also make sure you open the right .exe (if you have still an Icon to your old Installation Path, you might have the same problem)
If it still not work, i zipped my installation for you to test:
download here, if nothing else works
In that installation the command to load XML was already done.So if you run
luadist.install 'luaxml' ,it should say "No packages to install".
Note: it might not work if you are on a MAC or 32bit system, i'm not sure about that.