MM, it's only an issue in a folk club context. At a festival people attend shows they'll like or head for the bar if it's not their bag. All perfectly natural.
The main reason I don't attend clubs (or church services) is I wouldn't want to offend by yawning or standing up and leaving the room if I didn't like what was on offer. If staying is part of the deal it makes for small attendances lead by the musical tastes of the few regulars, or a very conservative/inoffensive booking programme.

A range of styles under the folk umbrella is the ideal; unaccompanied traditional, accompanied trad, traditional with contemporary instruments, modern lyrics on old tunes, right through loops, freon horn drones, Xpelair samples from the Gents, Bert Lloyd overlays and sequences. All with the greatest respect for the nameless ones who went before.