Having read both books under discussion and now various pieces by Alan Bearman, personally the class-conscious activities of Sharp do not interest me, although Bearman's exposure of Dave Harker's statistics manipulation is somewhat disappointing. Sharp seemingly recorded faithfully all of the material he collected, unlike some who came before him. As I said earlier it is very unfortunate that Dave chose to put such a strong political slant on his expose of all the middle-class interference with the material. BUT the overall book still stands as one of the earliest and most comprehensive, exposing the extensive mediation of antiquarians, collectors etc., some of whom indulged in downright deception, and that's from my own research which backs up a lot of what Dave presents.
To me it matters little what the collectors published as long as the faithfully recorded field notes and manuscripts are left to posterity.