HIGHLY ABSTRACT
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Fay,

What is the point in defining "folk" in such a way as to include the efforts of someone like Bartok?

As "folk" is defined and redefined to be more inclusive, it becomes less useful. By the time "folk music" is defined in such a way as to include the efforts of someone like Bartok, it has become completely useless. If everything is folk music, then nothing is folk music. By that time, to call something as "folk" music conveys zero information about it.

The purpose of the term "folk" is to distinguish one body of music from another. Such labels save time and energy. The broader the definition of "folk" becomes, the more CDs are dumped into the "folk" bin at my favorite CD store. The more CDs in the bin, the more I have to paw through to find the few that contain the music I am really interested in.

It one word is rendered useless by such definitional broadening, People just have to invent another word.

Don't get me started about "roots" music.