It's been nearly a generation since I was responsible for bookings at folk music clubs in the US. In one instance it was a volunteer gig; the other got me a percentage of the gate altholugh that amount wasn't ever sufficient to make the money the sole driver in by booking decisions. The choice of which acts to book was predicated on a mix of what the audience liked, what I liked, and what was available. I didn't make the bookings in consultation with any 1% detatchment of Folk Police, although for the volunteer post I ostensibly worked with a committee that helped make the decisions. I had friends who ran clubs in other US cities, but we almost never discussed booking practices, nor did we coordinate on scheduing. If anyone had described us as an elite class of musical overlords or Folk Police, we would have found the assertion laughable. Perhaps things have changed, but the "evidence" I'm seeing here isn't sufficient to convince me it has.