My objection to modern "folk music" loosely based on the tradition is that it is so bloody boring, the emotion lost, the story lost, participation discouraged.
Modern "Folk Music" has become simply a gilded frame within which young and not so young wannabee's exhibit their just about average musical skills. To some this may be "clever" and designed to attract an audience who's knowledge has been honed on "Big Brother", "Love Island and Facebook; but oh how I long to hear a singer who really feels what the song or tune is all about and can transmit that feeling to an audience who are receptive and capable of absorption.
In my youth I was a fan of beat music and dancing, when purely by chance I dropped into a little hotel on my way to the Saturday dance.
In the lounge I sat with a pint to listen to a few campers who were singing and playing, when they had finished one of their songs, a young lassie came from a dim corner of the room and sat on the arm of my chair......She sang me a song of love and betrayal which touched me deeply and does so to this day. When she finished, no one cheered or whooped, there was complete silence .....we all knew that we had been honoured to have been present and it was not simply a song, but the girl's soul that we heard speak that night.
I later found out that the girl had just come back from Ewan MacColl's singers Club.....and she went on to become one of the most respected singers and teachers in Scotland.

That night taught me what Folk Music is, the power it has to make people rediscover lost emotions.
Absolutely nothing to do with marketing, celebrity, or mass appeal, Folk music is basically a personal thing, some of us unfortunately are unable to respond to anything musical without the armour of virtue signalling. Dilution is a sin.