Jim I am not advocating fossilisation of the genre,on the contrary,I am saying that is what happened before folk clubs were invented.
Folk clubs bring people who appreciate the music together to perform it and keep it alive.The music of the people was both old and new songs and the singers reflected that.
Your take the view that songs should be trad or written in the style of old songs if not they are dismissed as pop rubbish.
You say a song about farting in Church is a folk song if it was written by a local ,and say modern singers only write pop songs that will not last,smell the coffee millions of songs have died over time who ever wrote them.
The only songs which last for many years are the best of whatever genre they are.
Kenny of course you are right when you say that folk clubs aren't the only place that people can share music but it a place that many people do, another way to do keep it alive