Johnny J said:-
"is there a danger of this leading to the promotion of more "high falutin'" and esoteric type of events and a very narrow representation of what is actually available?"

Yes, there is.

What do you do if you don't like this?

Organise something yourself that fits in with your own beliefs/expectations.

And don't kid yourself that this phenomenon is exclusive to folk clubs. My past experience of left wing activism in the UK is that is was dominated by the "professional" classes.