Very late to this one.
M.R. James is not a favorite of mine. I've read a collection of his stories and just not blown away. But, that's not saying that I don't acknowledge with respect his contribution to the quiet coffin.
I have been reading a lot of spooky, horror, supernatural stuff lately and I do have to admit that the O.G.'s in the widespread genre are far superior to the work of modern times in terms of ideas. James and his like are the vanguards of today's horror and I give it up to them.
And as to your question about professors being more open to the possibilities in myths, fairytales and sagas -- I just believe that is a scholarly mind. It's what a scholar's mind is wired to do. Seek. Never say never. Approach a subject from all its convoluted sides.