"There are dozens of outlets for folk music available to us."
Not to guarantee to keep it either folk and certainly not grass root
Stating this without putting facts behind it and refusing to respond is Iainism writ large

Some of what Johnny says make s sense with one exception
"much of the above was almost lost in the modern world and folk clubs"
By the time the clubs arrived what Johnny describes had disappeared - to a degree, some clubs reintroduces it, but as it came from a different world, it was neither possible nor desirable to aim to bring it bak - that would have been as artificial coming to the clubs in straw hats and crinolines
The clubs were largely a n urban phenomenon - the significant rural communities had largely vanished if they hadn't been eaten up
As far as I can judge, you were never guaranteed an audience for say big ballads ot shanties, in the rural venues - in some areas ritual songs would have been not only odd but downright unlucky in the places where the customs still prevailed - that remained the case in parts of rural Ireland where even a bodhran was a taboo instrument (instead of the pain in the arse it now is)

Folk song proper is as 21st century as Shakespeare and Johnson - and if respected (in very short supply nowadays there is no reason for it remaining so -
THe only difference between The Bard and Folk Song is that one works as a grass-roots art - the other is bums-on-seats - long may that continue to be the case
Jim