Since you ask, my own preference is strongly towards traditional song. When I discovered folk in my teens I became so involved that I turned away from pop music, although with hindsight I realise now that I missed out on some good music. I would say 75-80% of my song repertoire is traditional, although these days I am most active as a musician in a ceilidh band and don#t sing as often as I used to.

I have never suggested that the Kink's style of performance would be appropriate in a folk club. I was specifically describing a performance of one of their songs in the unaccompanied harmony style which has become common in folk clubs, from performers such as the Watersons, Young Tradition, Swan Arcade, Cockersdale, The Wilsons, and many more. Whether or not you like that style of singing, it is widespread on the folk scene and I stick to my view that a good song in that style is likely to be acceptable to most folk audiences, regardless of its origins.

I'm not sure we had a homogeneous folk scene, the one I was part of was extremely varied both in style and content. Not everything I heard was to my taste, but I wouldn't expect to like everything. The main unifying factor was that songs had a strong sense of structure and (usually) a clear story or message. Sometimes even pop songs can achieve that.