I was thinking along similar lines, but as one of the chief cat-bellers when matters got right out of control a while back, felt it wasn't my place to be too up-front about it. But at the same time, the best tribute anyone could give to Spaw is to follow in his tracks, earthy but not gratitously obscene, knowledgeable without beiing bigheaded.
There are younger performers out there, indeed I guess I'm one, being 20 years younger than the norm, but still positively aged by comparison with some. The trick is to ensure our grandchildren get to follow where we did, doing new things with the old tradition. Bits of Bellowhead were doing that with kids from Lambeth, not labelling it as "Folk" but as a different approach.
Part of the problem is that the music industry tried most determinedly to crash anything which wasn't punk or rap in the late 70s as a means to recover financial control of the sector, and in particular had it in for folk, the main drive of the concept album scene.
Having thrown the baby out with the bathwater, they came back somewhat apologetic a couple of years back, their scene becoming moribund, and nobody would go with them. Whether that's a good or a bad thing I don't know, but I think we are back in their bad books as a result. So don't look for cultural encouragement now.