"Any attempt to academize ballad singing is nuts. "
Not really - 'academising' ballads - lifting the corner to look underneath - in no way suggests that there is only one way to sing a ballad, it is merely taking a closer look at them.
Ballads, because of their age and the distance some of them have travellered, bring a great deal of information with them - read Wimberly's Folklore in the English and Scottish Ballads, for intance, or Evelyn Wells' The Ballad Tree, or Willa Muir's Living With Ballads, or Madge Elder's Tell The Towers Thereof, or Ballad Country - a whole load of literature which discusses the ballads in context.
Not all of this is relevant to the singing of ballads, but a hell of a lot helps you understand things which may not be obvious, which may be helpful to a singer.
Ignoring this information as a point of principle is 'nuts' to my mind.
Jim Carroll