Rush, Genesis, Al DiMeola, Van Halen, Led Zeppelin, et al,
You cite the bands that were the reason punk rock had to happen.
Ah yes, bands that could actually play their instruments and sing. Terrible stuff.
Jesus, is your avatar Yngwie Malmsteen?
Anyway, I don't really know why I am bothering to explain because clearly you won't agree, but...
On the whole, the music "scene" in the mid to late 70s was all disco or "dinosaur rock". Long extended solos etc and things that were intentionally 'difficult' to play. A lot of people were bored by this and wanted something with more energy and power.
What bands like the Sex Pistols, the Damned etc did (and there was a similar scene in New York), was to reject all of that. Punk was all about doing it yourself. It didn't matter that they couldn't play or couldn't sing. There was a raw energy to the music. It was new, it was different. It was a big 'fuck you' to the rock establishment.
The forerunners to punk were bands like the Velvet Underground, MC5, The Stooges, The New York Dolls.
Of course, punk music was incredibly diverse. Blink 182 and bands of that ilk are not really punk. It was all about DIY. The Ramones, Television, Richard Hell and the Voidoids, Patti Smith, Talking Heads and Blondie are just some of the bands that were part of the New York punk movement in the late 1970s.
