I'm not sure what the complaint is here. Anyone can make music for little or no cost, but to make popular music costs big bucks - according to this article around $1m. Not only do you need to employ a lot of the very best people, but most of that goes on marketing and distribution. No one is going to invest that sort of money unless they think the song will be a hit (and it may not even then). If people didn't like popular music they wouldn't buy it. But investors aren't committed to any particular genre, and they will invest in counter-cultural music if they think it will sell. The big labels invested in punk and in folk when those genres were sufficiently popular to justify it.

Does this crowd out other forms of music, which can't afford the promotion needed to get airplay? Undoubtedly. But it is wishful thinking to believe that if only people could hear folk music it would then become popular. Some folk still gets onto mainstream media, and streaming makes it easier than ever to explore new music, and some will be turned onto folk by that. However many people, even when shown what folk music is, still decide it's not for them.

Folk is niche music (along with many other genres). It can sound quite alien to people brought up on other genres. It arguably serves a different purpose - I would say the purpose of pop music is to make people feel good, whereas the purpose of folk is to make you think. Folk dance uses unfamiliar rhythms which many find difficult to adjust to. We shouldn't be surprised that many people don't like it, just as many people don't like rap, or jazz, or opera.

If the money men are making popular music sound all the same, so what? Why should that matter to us? Besides, I think it is an exaggeration. In the UK last year the top 10 best selling albums were:

1. Adele - 30 (2021)
2. Ed Sheeran - Equals (2021)
3. Abba - Voyage (2021)
4. Olivia Rodrigo - Sour (2021)
5. Queen - Greatest Hits (1981, re-released in 2021)
6. Dua Lipa - Future Nostalgia (2020)
7. Ed Sheeran - Divide (2017)
8. Elton John - Diamonds (2017)
9. Fleetwood Mac - 50 Years: Don't Stop (2018)
10. Dave - We're All Alone In This Together (2021)

I'm no expert on popular music, but there seems to be quite a bit of variety there.

Popular music is what it is. If you don't like it, don't listen. The same goes for folk, for that matter. They're different worlds, and one doesn't really affect the other.