Al, if you go right back to the opening posts in this thread, it's quite clear that they were written with tongue firmly in cheek.

today the loudest voices on mudcat are full of self righteous certainty that certain things aren't folk music.

Yes, but it's just Mudcat, isn't it? It's one of thousands of forums on the internet, even a major one, perhaps, but it's not the real world.

In the real world, people go out and play and perform just what they want to play and perform - and, if lucky, they find the venues where they can play their music - just like you and I have done for the last (in my case) 50 years. Fashions and tastes come and go - I've seen rock'n roll reinvented at least twice over the years. Only the other day a lass in her twenties was enjoying singing "Maids When You're Young Never Wed An Old Man" at a session. She'd heard it just recently for the first time and thought it was great - and was amazed when I mentioned that it was one of the first songs I'd ever heard at a folk club back in the mid-'60s!

What goes around comes around - play what you want to where you can and, if you work at it, someone will always want your music. There may be ups and downs in it all, and you have to live with them.