"as long as they're identified as such "
I used to think like this and got to wondering "why?"
I can see the converse being the case "as long they're not identified as traditional".
I know for a certainty, that Ewan got bits and pieces of songs from his parents and rebuilt tem into full versions, but he wasn't an academic and never claimed to be.
As a singer, he put out good songs to be sung - fine by me - that's what he did
The importance for me, in Ewan's 'productions', is he maintained the integrity of the song - something far too rare in what passes for folk song nowadays, with the electronic soup, and intrusive over-elaborate accompaniment, the deadly head-voice (woman's thing) the breaking up of sentences and words and the intrusive Hs.... which banishes the sense into a poor second place.
The narrative is what I come away with whenever I listen to his singing.
Jim Carroll