your right. Diane,on several points
EFDSS do not have to work like comhaltas,they could if they wished operate competitions which would raise money,but there are other ways of doing it.
they had a song writing competition,which didnt operate on the comhaltas model[local ,regional ,national],in fact regional styles are more likely to be preserved,if the competition is, for example, best northumbrian piper,or best north west fiddler etc.
so that one regional style is not being judged against another.
of course, all competitions are subjective,and not always the best person wins,but they are good focus points and they normally produce good spin offs[musicians getting together]Dick Miles