I didn't care for the Kingston Trio or many of their clones. I did, however, like Peter, Paul, and Mary quite a lot. But I didn't even think of them as "folk". I was young and I just thought of them like any of the other pop music I liked back then -- from Dave Clark 5 to the Beatles to the Supremes to Otis Redding. If I liked the song, I liked the song.

And I thought some of their vocal arrangements were just wonderful -- Jane, Jane, A-Solin' etc, were a cut above.

They were a very good pop group. And I guess that's the difference for me (addressing why I liked PP&M but not the Kingston Trio and their clones) -- the Kingston Trio and their clones were neither good pop, nor good folk.

Sometimes you can take the best of something and build on that, synthesize it into something else good. Sometimes when you take a little of this and a little of that, you end up with a lot of really bad. Like a ketchup milkshake. I like ketchup. I like milkshakes. I don't think adding the two together is a good idea.