Got the solution here Still no thumbnail previews in dolphin - #8 by kasi042
A simple
sudo zypper in kio-extras5
resolved it and created the file /usr/share/kservices5/directorythumbnail.desktop
now zypper se -f /usr/share/kservices5/directorythumbnail.desktop brings up a result…
looks like zypper se -f only checks installed packages 
Cheers!