Firmly agreed, but MY hot take on top of that is that the intended 'poptimist' corrective, while well intentioned, often came off as an attempt to do the same thing TO rock, which was effectively validating that pernicious division while ostensibly fighting it
Ned RaggettThe way the history of pop was warped by boomer criticism/historiography into a hard dividing line between a supposed glop past and Elvis-and-everything-after with a rock focus was a massive reductive mistake that is still playing out.