If Bert Lloyd and the rest of the collectors were discovered to have written every word it wouldn't make an ounce of difference to the continued performance and reception of folk.

What interests me about this hypothetical is that we already know it's not going to happen. Take (for example) Skewball, Reynardine and the Recruited Collier. In every one of those cases I can show you Bert Lloyd's version & I can also show you what was there before he got to work on it. This isn't speculation or blind faith - we've got the data. When people talk about the folk process they're talking history, not religion.