Well, I'm still doing it, folk processing I mean, more and more with advancing age.

Pat Cooksey has found more than 20 TITLES to his 'Paddy and the Bricks.'

Cyril Tawney always did it to his own songs, polishing them to economy.

Vin Garbutt has written (I'm told,) a new verse to an old song.

I would say that, if a singer is going to the trouble of learning a song, s/he would want a version that suits him/her. However, what has changed? Cecil Sharp House and suchlike institutions still have the originals for the scholar, so the singers will do what they like.