This is becoming very murky. I'm saying I can tell what folk music is by listening to it. Someone telling me it was Child 75 'Lord Lovel' or that he based his work on Gruntvig's model or it yields to a Proppian morphology is unnecessary to know it's a folk song.
If however traditionalists insist that academic readings are necessary for proof, or that such proofs play any part in appreciating music, then their research models and terminology are going to have to be impeccable. I'd rather keep professorial research away from the self-evident truth of my ears but terms like the people and the process serve to muddy the waters, not clear them.