"I know about 'incremental repetition'"
Look it up - it's a basic element of ballad scholarship - milk white steed, lily-white breast, et al are 'commonplaces' not repetition
"Why not?"
Once you start questioning the past work of out leading scholars without providing a rational and workable alternative you are undermining over a century of work
Some decades ago Dave Harker wrote a scurrilous book doing that - little more than a hit-list of everybody who had given us songs and offering nothing in return
Having worked in the building trade, my immediate thought was "it's far easier to pull something down than it is to build something"
You wish to pick away at Child and Bronson, feel free, but you are really going to have to come up with something better than this - an understanding of ballad construction might be a good starting place
Jim