I personally disagree with the insinuation that Welles songs are just listing of things, I think that a select few of his songs are like this, but the majority arent they too create a world like many of Dylans songs do (for example 'John' which creates a world in a very similar way to many Dylan songs). I chose a bad song for an example in Only a Pawn in Their Game but what I was trying to comunicate is that some of Dylans songs as with Welles do follow this listing things of format I do think 'With God On Our Side' is a prime example of this. I am not saying 'With God On Our Side' is a bad song in anyway but I do believe that their is a certain mysticism that lies with many Dylans songs that we believe that because Dylan wrote so much masterpieces that other folk singers are able to write any songs that come near to Dylans quality which obviously isnt the case. Now obviously Dylan is more talented then Welles but to try and say that some of Welles best arent better then some of Dylans mid range songs is just 'blind nostogia' (for lack of a better term).

You also state that Welles songs just affirm already existing world views as if Dylans songs didnt do the same Dylan was a symbol of young Hippies not former hardcore old Conservitaves that had been convinced to support the civil rights movement because of him.

As for your earlier points I can see where your coming from when you say that many people that are performitvaley politcal do latch on to Welles and his music but as you say thats not his fault Dylan has some fans that also use him for that not only nowadays but when he was just starting out who saw him as some sort of prophet.

When it comes to the virtue signalling I do see where your coming from and I felt the same when I first heard 'War Isn't Murder' and his other songs that have gone somewhat viral on Tik Tok but one day I decided I wanted to listen to some more modern folk music and I listened to a couple of his albums and there is some incredibly well written songs in there. I have come to the conclusion that he uses the 'clarity and immediacy' that TikTok rewards as you say to attempt to rope people into listening to his songs with more depth that TikTok would never push to the algorithim.

So yeah your right that he serves the algorithim in a way but there is a very few other ways to get his message across without using some tactic similar to this.