'there is no reason why people should not do both play music purely for the sake of it and earn money doing it, i am doing both all the time. i go round to friends houses and play and enjoy it , i do gigs and enjoy what i am doing.'

I'm in a similar boat really.
I regard the songs I produce as 'folk'. Even though I'm all too aware that most English folkies wouldn't regard it as such.
Its not jazz; its not country, its not pop; its not blues; it observes none of the rules of formal classical music (couldn't play four beats in a bar to save me life!) - its what I produce as a 'folk'. I read AL Lloyd's Folk song in in England and his description of the folksinger sitting in his cottage fashioning his songs - and I thought - yep, that's me!

And I've worked as a jobbing musician - country music in miners welfares, ancient and jurassic pop songs in working men's clubs, pubs, old peoples homes, restaurants, Whisky in the Jar and Christy Moore in Irish theme pubs and Irish pubs and centres.

And yet... I know a whole load of folksingers who can't do that human juke box thing, and feel that their gift is specific to the music they have dedicated their lives to.
There are different ways to dedicate your life to music. that's what I believe.