I don't think anybody has ever attempted to suggest an idealised picture of how it was Howard - I certainly am not
In Manchester, if you wanted tardition or tradition based, you went to The Pack Horse or one of Harry Boardman clubs, if you wanted singing pullovers, The Beggarmen ran a club, and if you wanted singer-songwriter, The Shakespeare Head - Christie Moore had a club somewhere
Liverpool earlier and London later were similar
The clubs co-existed without threatening the position of each other
Occasionally, you would get a stranger finding him/herself in the wrong venue but there was no doubt among the locals that thee were certain places to go if you were selective
I don't remember much "finger-in-ear" or "purist" nonsense thrown about and the nastiness of "folk police" or even "folk fascist" never occurred in my hearing
I don't think I remember anybody going around with a signboard saying "Nobody knows what folk song is"
Any claim that would 'the people have changed the meaning of folk" would have been laughed out of London Road or Piccadilly - we were fully aware that our interest was very much a minority one
This 'Utopian' image is a bit of a red herring
Jim