The traddy faction however claims a sort of moral high ground."!
not true, in fact the op, if i remember correctly i have heard sing tradtional songs[ perhaps not exclusively.
so that rather defeats your argument,
the only bad thing quote, in fact
i think this is the quote
You cant damage a song by singing it,the only way you can damage the song is by not singing it" not quite the same Al
a statement with certain weaknesses, imo made by Martin Carthy not all singers of tradtional songs have the same views as Martin.