When I first started listening to Irish trad music, it pretty much sounded "all the same" to me. It requires some involvement and a lot of active listening to appreciate the nuances.

The OP did not specify who the bands were he was hearing, and said he was "not that close to the machine". May I suggest he was perhaps occupied with other activities at the time and not committed to active listening?

I'm assuming - perhaps wrongly - that he was talking about modern "Celtic fusion" bands (for lack of a better term) such as Capercaillie or Shooglenifty. If one does not reject the efforts of such groups out of hand, it should be quickly apparent that there are great differences between the approaches, instrumentation, and sound of them.