"why a composer 'making money' is enough for them to be dismissed out of hand. "
It would be helpful if you could point out where this has happened
If we are talking about the revival making money only became a problem when it became the objective rather than an offshoot
Splitting hairs about 'by hand or brain' s a diversion - a folk songs became folk songs when the folk took ownership of them and made them their own rather than just repeating them - they underwent 'the folk process'
We know of about fifty songs made in this area during the lifetimes of the singers we recorded, nearly all distinguished by their anonymity - they were taken up and absorbed into the local oral tradition
Publishing them would have acted against that
Jim Carroll