“The Sex Pistols were a manufactured band as well, a selling point being they couldn’t play their instruments.”
Considering he hadn’t been playing for very long when they recorded Never Mind the Bollocks, Steve Jones was not a bad guitarist. Glen Matlock was a decent musician, but he got the boot in part because he liked stuff like the Beatles.
Sid Vicious was so bad that the band frequently turned off his amp during shows, and according to Jones there are maybe three or four notes of Sid’s bass playing on Never Mind the Bollocks. Jones played bass on most of the album; Matlock played it on “Anarchy In The UK.” If you don’t have enough musical ability to play bass in a punk band, you’ve gotta be pretty hopeless...
McLaren tried to sign another punk band that could play, Cock Sparrer, before he decided to put together the Pistols. They told him to “p*** off” because he wouldn’t buy the drinks at their contract negotiation, held in a local pub.
Lydon & Rotten just wanted to be famous, so they were probably more compliant :)