Derrick
"paradise you remember in the past was hell for others."
As is the case with every other type of music.
It should be allowed to stand and fall by its own merits - nothing wrong with that.
With the folk revival as I knew if, not just as an audience member but as a singer, club organiser and activist and later, a researcher and collector, it had a minority (of what - pop - classical - jazz?) following which continued to attract audiences util it's, in my opinion, premature demise.   
Right up to MacColl's last illness he and Peggy were performing to capacity audiences.
The fact those the audiences didn't compare in number to say a pop concert, was always totally immaterial - we had our audiences and continued to draw in new people - never as many as we wanted, but enough.
Our policy was still capable of producing overflow audiences every now and again.
Even if that had not been the case, a change of policy to draw in more would have been pointless - we were in it for a particular type of music and we tried to put bums on seats for that type of music.
Quite honestly, as none of those people sharing Al's unfathomable attitude to what kind of music other than "mine" is concerned, I have no idea of what he is talking about when he talks about "folk".
Much of the music I have heard that now passes for "folk" is very like some Chinese food, tasty enough at the time but unmemorable - belch and you're hungry again.
Genuine folk at least has a provenance and some sort of pedigree.
I've always believed that the best way to plan your future is to understand your past - that goes for music as much as anything else.
Jim Carroll