"where exactly did those 200+ versions of Barbara Allen come from?"

"Isn't this rather like saying if God doesn't exist, then who designed the universe?"

More like saying: "All these wonderful fossils exist: what excellent evidence for evolution." You're not putting me on the side of the creationists.

"the inner mechanism of what is called Folk Process - which no one here seems willing to talk about"

Huh? We were talking about it on a 'Two Sisters' thread only last week. Individual creativity, imperfect memory, continuity versus change... been there. But rest assured that no-one really believes in 'collective composition' any more.

If we were to accept your Humpty-Dumpty redefinitions of words, the only outcome would be for the word 'folk' to cease to have any meaning at all. Which of course is exactly the conclusion that many have already drawn. And the answer to the OP would be "No". But where does that get anyone?

Thanks for the Gong link, though.