To get a tiny bit philosophical, David, the more I delve into the murky world of public opinion as expressed in internet forums, the more people cleave to their established views on things rather than open their mind and learn. Whilst I complain right royally about this (being of a temperamentally open mind myself - not a boast), it seems that music and a few other things are sacred to me and in these subjects I very much turn turtle, starting with the answer and much less able to see the other side, so although my post was challenging, a) apologies, b) thanks for coming back with a thoughtful response.
So, after the least punk opening to a post in history, I think I'm very much a Lydon fanboy, exactly because of his Attitude, which you could describe in many ways (and which some may abhor or distrust), but I'd describe as "Doing What the Fuck He Wants". Hence my comment about the butter: had someone I didn't like done said commercial, I'd be all over them, but as Lydon did it I'm claiming it was yet another F**k You to any expectations of him.
If anything for me exemplifies punk, it's this F*** You attitude and whilst Joe had it a bit, Lydon had/has it in spades. I'm surprised with your comment about McLaren, who I see as an irrrelevance: Lydon was the driving force, helped by Matlock's tunes, though of course, happy to discuss.
I don't stand behind Joh-nee's habitually erratic pronouncements over the years, though as suggested above, I think their point is to challenge rather than to join-up or make any sense. He often surprises me which side of an issue he''ll be on, and for every piece of misguided gibberish, there's often a nugget I hadn't considered which makes me think.
I only mention Politics in my post as the strength of punk for me was the personal politics rather than the big P, and that's more Lydon's end than the undoubted Achievements of Strummer & Jones. I talk here as if I lived it - I didn't: I was 5 or 6 and living in Yorkshire, but it's the period of music/culture which has most engaged me over the years. I think the forum's had a convo on this on another thread, but I think there were only a handful of Punk bands - the Pistols, the Slits, Siouxsie, X-Ray Spex? - with the rest doing something still interesting but with a different ethos from the catalytic sparks given off by Mr Rotten / Ms Sioux. I don't deny the quality of many of these bands btw, many amongst my favourite bands.
Finally - yes PiL much more going on than the Pistols, and no-one will be talking about Oasis in 10 years, never mind 25, whereas The Universal, This is a Low and Out of Time already seem classic. And as for Peel, although I never met the man, it seems I miss him every day.