the existence of a tune is generally not a bad thing
tbc I'm not saying it is - I'm not one if those people (if they even exist) who is uniformly against pop hooks or tunes
and I'm not suggesting it's an either/or binary - rather a spectrum with (abstractly) atonality at one end and MOR at the other
now that disclaimer is out of the way
I should have been clearer that hardcore itself is the departure point in this case - again you can't point at any single dividing moment or line, but somehow in ~7 years you get from sneering over sped-up Chuck Berry to this
which along with first 2 D.R.I. 7"s, is the logical conclusion of the initial wave of U.S. hardcore
(everything that comes after - thrash, grindcore, power violence - is in dialogue with the past rather than part of the initial burst of energy)
you're right that "Nothing" wasn't the best sonic example of what I was talking about - it's just such a perfect distillation of the vibe of the 1st wave of hardcore
the Negative Approach sonic example would be the 11 seconds of "Pressure"
I did notice that the hardcore bands - Descendants, Samoans - you named are from the most pop end of the most pop scene (Socal) in hardcore. not that saying that's bad - side A of the first Bad Religion LP is one of my favorite 80s hardcore records. I've never, even as a teenager, had any time for later pop-punk (besides the odd exception like Propaghandi), but those initial Socal bands - the ones named, plus anything Rikk Agnew was involved in - made some great records
tbh I find Zen Arcade way overrated - some decent tracks but like most double LPs, plenty of filler. I wouldn't perversely claim Land Speed Record is their best - tho it fucking rips - but I do firmly think Everything Falls Apart/Metal Circus Du is the best Du. New Day Rising and after, no thanks.
Reoccurring Dreams is the kind of thing I'd like better if I hadn't heard a ton of superior longform psychedelic jams
I also noticed that in virtually all examples of guitar overload you named, said guitar overload is largely or all textural rather than composition/playing, with the partial exception of Dinosaur Jr. - they have noise textures but Mascis certainly shreds. again, not value judgment, just observation.
Flipper did always have riffs and grooves but they didn't have hooks, not even in the JAMC sense of hooks buried under a wall of feedback noise
that's part of what I'm getting at - the difference between noise rock and "noise not music" as aesthetic philosophical base