You've made a really good point, LadyJean. Songwriters (and most singers who are doing traditional material) when they start out, don't do songs with choruses. I'm not sure why that's the case. For songwriters, I guess it's because they feel that they have something unique to say and aren't thinking that others might want to join in.
When I first started singing traditional music, most of my repertoire was learned from sources like the Anthology Of American Folk Music. Most of the recordings were by solo performers or duets, and many of the songs didn't have choruses.

When I think back to first performing at the Gaslight Cafe in Greenwich Village in the early sixties, the audiences didn't sing along, even on good chorus songs. Folk music back then was definitely a spectator sport. That seems strange to me now, because you think of all the popular recordings of songs like Tom Dooley, Michael Row The Boat Ashore, Sloop John B... many of them had great choruses. Maybe it was different in other parts of the country and in England, but New York City coffee houses were places where you listened, for the most part. I have musician friends who are of the same vintage as me, who still don't encourage singing along on choruses.

One of the first songs I ever wrote and performed acknowledged that pull between introspective songs and choruses. I wrote very few introspective songs, but one was about the collapse of my first marriage. I played the introspection off with a good sing-along chorus:

"What do you when the good times are gone
Sit by the window and wait for the dawn
And you can't remember how things went so wrong anymore
What does it matter how hard you tried
Or how many times you kept it inside
There's no more to say, and nothing to hide anymore

CHORUS: Nobody wants to hear a sad song
         We've all got troubles of our own
         Of our own"

Jerry