Well, Bertrand Bronson, who collated as many extant tunes to the Child ballads as he could find, thought Child's work, incomplete as it was, was the only logical place to start. So without Child there probably wouldn't have been Bronson. I suspect I might be of your parents generation, and I learned many of my Child ballads from Bronson. I suspect the people of your parents generation from whom you learned the songs, who recorded these records and tapes you quote, did too, directly or indirectly.

When Cecil Sharp (who did collect folk songs, by the way) published his works, he thought Child's opus was good enough for his major category. When people like MacColl and Lloyd recorded them, they thought Child's name. and his numbers, were a useful categorization. So perhaps, if you don't think the name of Child is worth preserving in the pantheon, maybe you could give us a list of the ballads you know instead, and give them IanC numbers. Then we can all start again from scratch :-)

Maybe I'm a little cynical (many of us get that way as we get older) but I don't really see your point. Shall we go and burn the books?