Well! You don't seem to like folk music very much, do you? Your generalisations, like most generalisations, contain a germ of truth but, like most generalisations, tell only part of the story.

Folk isn't elitist. It is difficult, in that it uses idioms and structures which aren't familiar to most people raised on modern popular music or Western Classical music, and it requires more attention and a longer attention span than most popular music (it does puzzle me that people can sit through a 3-hour movie but complain about a ballad which tells a similar story in under 10 minutes). It's open to anyone who is prepared to make the effort to listen to it, however most people have got out of the habit of listening to music, it's just something they have on.

Most people, even when exposed to folk, just don't get it. You seem to be one of them, and your reason for involvement in folk seems to be to accompany your wife rather than anything to do with the music. That's fine, but don't expect us to change things for your benefit. Perhaps your wife should go to folk clubs on her own and you find something more congenial to do with your time.

For those that do get it, and are prepared to meet it on its own terms, it's very accessible and open. There are plenty of young people getting into folk. I sometimes play at a session where I am the oldest person in the room by 20 or 30 years (I'm in my mid 50s). Many of the others are students. I'm not worried about the future.