Yep, that probably hits it on the head, Alexandros.
There was invariably a huge gulf between what was heard in the cathedrals and courts, and what the people routinely played and listened to.
I find myself wondering how much of "the people's music" from those days has been lost because no one bothered to write it down. The vast majority, probably. Some medieval and renaissance music comes down to us now as traditional tunes, but in many cases they only barely resemble their original form; rather like the children's game "telephone," the memory of a traditional tune is often distorted by the faulty memories of successive generations.