No kidding. I was born 20 years or so too late for the good stuff. I saw Floyd sans Waters a couple of times but its not the same.
I agree with just about everything you posted. You forgot to mention thuis whole "grunge" craze which started out ok (Soundgarden, STP, Alice in Chains) but has evolved (devolved) into pure crapola with everyone and their grandmother trying to sound like Curt Kobain.
Man I loved Nirvana, I couldn`t believe it when they came out, couldn`t believe they were even given a record deal and actually promoted as they weren`t a MTV "hair band", it was just so unlike the industry to actually take in a band that had something new because of the music holocaust, but as expected the end result was 10 billion Nirvana clones for the next 15 years that will probably extend into 20 years. Even Greenday was cool, now the music holocaust has eaten them up as well turning them into commerical hacks. "No Billie Joe, you must play gay ballads. Our marketing firm says la di da ballads are the way to go"