Could it not be that "Folk Process" and "Tradition" are not exactly the same thing, that perhaps they could be viewed as a simple Vin diagram with a huge overlapping area, but not a complete eclipse of one over the other?

Tradition could be frozen in the past in such a view, but a part of the folk process would not be. And it is obvious that there are areas where the folk process is still strongly at work, and not particularly collectable in the instant, such as military training chants and schoolyard games and songs that pop up with a degree of spontaneity and may or may not catch on and spread with multiple variants.

Admittedly, I haven't read this entire fascinating thread yet, though I will eventually, so this may have already been put forth. Please forgive me if I'm repeating an idea expressed already.