It's a confusing experience, in my opinion. For myself, I'd far rather work from printed text so that any "artistic" choices are mine! Maybe it's because when I was looking for songs to add to my repertoire, there was no internet and so songs came from performers in folk clubs or from recorded material -- but even then I'd copy out words by repeated listening before abandoning the sound source.
Eventually I believe you begin to know what you like and what you want to convey, so that the interpretations of others are less relevant.
But, having said that, I've been thrilled to see some of the early video of Jean Ritchie (on another thread)!