wic recently changed the .wks search paths to include <layer>/wic directory. However, there are two problems still: 1) WKS_SEARCH_PATH in image_types.bbclass is not updated so <layer>/wic won't work 2) wic is unable to find .wks.in files (e.g., wic list images)
(In reply to comment #0) > 2) wic is unable to find .wks.in files (e.g., wic list images) OTOH, this may be an invalid case because wic is unable to handle template files.
> 1) WKS_SEARCH_PATH in image_types.bbclass is not updated so <layer>/wic won't work The fix has been sent for review before this bug is created: http://lists.openembedded.org/pipermail/openembedded-core/2016-December/130585.html
The fix has been accepted to poky master.