"No intrinsic need for the narrative to be lost in any form of rendition"
No there isn't but in this case the narrative is lost in my opinion - as it was in the days of mini folk choirs and electric balladeers.
While it pleasant (beautiful, in your own words) enough to listen to, I believe it has moved too far from the narrtive to make it anything like good, or even mediocre ballad singing - again, in my opinion.
Don't know if you ever heard Maddy Prior's programme 'In Praise of Ballads' (probably the worst analysis of the genre of all times - insult to injury was the potted on-the-spot psychoanalysis applied to each ballad), but her choice was indicative that this is what had happened to ballads in the hands of the revival; probably the nearest I come to agreeing with Sean.
Jim Carroll