Dick we have threads on sexy banjos, breasts and whatever and this is pretty silly?

The river analogy is a pretty good one I think. Rivers don't run back uphill and if they become blocked and starved of a fresh supply of water, they will change into a stagnant pond.

You say: "And if it weren't for collectors, folk music (whatever that means simply wouldn't exist as a genre".

And wouldn't that save us a lot of debate? I agree with you 100% on your statement and it is exactly the point I am trying to make. The collectors have produced the genre, before that, we just had/have the music.

The genre once created, could then be plundered, ignored and largely dismissed with words like rustic, earthy and other such platitudes.

Are the direct descendants of those 'singer songwriters' that continued the tradition of creating the songs and music, now to be denied access to the very genre that was produced for them?