Somebody has probably already written about how "authenticity" is just a marketing tactic, mostly used to sell food to educated cultural outsiders who want a more worldly experience and to diaspora kids who often want the same thing
Modern mass literacy is at best an illusion
With standardized tests, gov agencies make assertions about literacy and writing ability and nobody questions them b/c they’re “data”
Meanwhile <1% of the population can write half as well as a barely-educated Civil War infantryman