Progphobia is the last acceptable prejudice and is tied up with people's fear of being silly, which is a silly thing to be afraid of, as being silly and being awesome are two sides of the same concept album LP. Led Zeppelin is deeply and profoundly silly, but everyone kind of ignores it because they are great. Going bankrupt putting on a King Arthur-themed ice skating opera[0] is deeply silly but also a pure example of artistic commitment which transcends petty aesthetic criticism and can only be understood spiritually, perhaps as a Werner Herzog movie. And no, I won't ever listen to it because give me a break, but it's still a completely awesome thing to do.
Punk etc which came afterwards was also very silly, and also mostly wasn't very good at all, because it was fashion and performance art and social criticism and musically quite conservative and dull in addition to being amateurish. None of which stopped it from being awesome in its own way, which explains why Robert Fripp played guitar with The Damned while King Crimson was on hiatus, because fun is fun and genre wars are just publicity stunts and you would have to be a rock critic to fall for it. Prog rock is really wonderful and there's more fun stuff than anyone could ever listen to, and that's why 50 years of music critic complaining has failed to kill it.
Punk etc which came afterwards was also very silly, and also mostly wasn't very good at all, because it was fashion and performance art and social criticism and musically quite conservative and dull in addition to being amateurish. None of which stopped it from being awesome in its own way, which explains why Robert Fripp played guitar with The Damned while King Crimson was on hiatus, because fun is fun and genre wars are just publicity stunts and you would have to be a rock critic to fall for it. Prog rock is really wonderful and there's more fun stuff than anyone could ever listen to, and that's why 50 years of music critic complaining has failed to kill it.
[0] https://www.vanityfair.com/style/2020/06/the-stranger-than-f...