I've just stumbled across your site, read most of the thread, and still feel the need to add something... Sorry.

I believe the traditional ballad looks back in time at an certain event/events although its "message/moral" may very well be intended for the present; when that time-gap-feeling isn't there then it's just another narrative to me and lacks that something. This was just one parameter I used when I vainly tried comparing the European "oral tradition" (captured by Child, etc.) with the one in the part of Africa where I lived.
Another parameter I used is that it is definitely intended to be sung and through singing it, more easily remembered and better passed on to the next generation.
Interestingly enough, perhaps because a ballad is so crafted, it also often causes a reaction in the listener (the message?) resulting in it being liked or disliked, it is seldom treated indifferently. And perhaps that's why they are so hard to define while so easy to recognise ?
"So where does that leave 'Leader of the Pack'", he asks himself ? "At the starting block ?"