Punk stuff is where I came from and its always important to me, but I've always wanted to learn to solo well in a swing jazz setting. I do enjoy some of the rigor in learning music theory and reading music and all that. I do enjoy some math rock, I love bands like tricot and learned Potage with decent success but the way my brain works, I need to understand all the aspects of what makes something work and just creating new paths is difficult for me without some kinda map. I can learn to cover songs all day but writing music hasn't made any sense to me until I started applying some theory.

Its also why I love manouche because its not very strict on the theory but you can still apply it to understand why X sounds and feels like it does. IE a lot of Django's playing is heavily based around arpeggios and chromatic variations, which is very easy to get started with but difficult to master building lines. I want to really get a feel for chord changes and playing with the changes. Having that goal is helpful for me.

But yeah, that's a good point on the authoritarian aspect of music theory snobs. Guitar always feels a bit outsidery compared to someone who only studies say jazz trumpet. Not many people who play the trumpet get anywhere by learning a couple notes and feeling it out the way a lot of guitarists, bassists, etc do it. Most folks who play a kind of brass or woodwind did so through school, like you in marching band. I skipped any and all school based music education so I was very much out of the loop in that regard. Classical guitar is similar but also funny because classical guitar is fairly young compared to a lot of the pieces played on it. One thing I do enjoy though is the variations of style with classical. Also the technical skills I've learned with strict classical practice have been incredibly valuable for random finger styles like folk, clawhammer banjo, finger style jazz chord progressions, etc. I can pick up most pieces and play decently without a pick which is neat.