I think you are giving too little importance to the intelligence and critical faculy of the consumer/auditor/receptor/audience member.

Henry Moore, the sculptor said that someone who picks up an interesting pebble from a beach is making a creative decision, committing a creative act.

When I'm at singarounds, I often see people disengage when they think a performer has nothing to offer, and in my opinion - more often than not - they are missing out. They don't pick up the pebble.

Its possible that something may be entertaining and have substance - but just be in the wrong place. Anyway that's what I think.

This doesn't mean you can't have strong opinions about the nature of folk music. It just means we all need to expand our horizons.