As to 'traditional' vs. 'anon' vs. 'known composer'.... there are songs *I* prefer to whatever passes for the 'original'. It is often the case that many minds over dozens or hundreds of years can improve on both words & tunes--- but I DO prefer to know how & why they were changed, and much of the fun of 'folk' is tracing and comparing the history of versions.

I also am sure that many people's favorite version tends toward the one they heard first...especially if they have known & sung it for many years. (We see that here in requests for "Joe Blow's version" of 'The Ballad of Flatulent Fred'...often wanting chords & midis, also)

It is just hard to mentally edit something that has become part of you. There are a number of songs I learned in the hinterlands of faraway Kansas, in the 1960s, that I have since discovered were either bowdlerized, shortened, of simply 'pop' versions.. (for example the risque little ditty "The Bastard King of England". I know there are cleverer and more authentic versions, but I can't seem to get them past entrenched memories.)

What really bothers me is gratuitous and careless changes which are often just 'messing' with a good song, simply to have one that no one else does. In my collection of Child Ballads, there are some astoundingly atrocious sounds perpetrated by singers or groups who I suppose thought they were 'being creative'. I'll bet YOU have heard some of those.

I learned my version of "The Twa Corbies" from Jean Redpath, 40 years ago, and I really like the feel of the tune she used, and as I said way back up there, the point of the song is always clear to a **folk** audience, even with my non-authentic Scots accent. I suppose if I were a professional, and singing it for a mixed audience, I would either change a few words or explain them before I started.