Since this discussion is pointless, and has been for the past century or so, why not start over by soliciting definitions of "folk" and "traditional"? Otherwise we wind up with arguments about whether an elephant is a quadruped, a vertebrate, a mammal, or a beast of burden.

That's easy. "Folk" is a mammal and "traditional" is a beast of burden. :)

Seriously, there is indeed an elephant in the room. That, is the tendency to slide effortlessly back and forth between academically aware practitioners, such as we mostly see here, and society in general.