Naaah, you're right, there was some amazing music being made during that period.
I guess I was reacting to that moment when the freshness of bands like Husker Du and the Pixies turned into the more watered down versions of themselves (though Mould's pre-Sugar solo album Workbook still seems listenable, if I remember correctly) -- to say nothing of the envy that *I* have for the fact that while certain great guitar and drum outfits of the day were doing their thing stateside, my agemates in the UK were witnessing the emergence of jungle and 'ardkore, something in retrospect I would have much much much preferred to have seen and heard.
But sure, for those of us who were there, so to speak, at the time, the Pixies and others (Sonic Youth, Dinosaur Jr., My Bloody Valentine, Jawbox, the usual crowd) were indeed a revelation to see live in the late 80s/early 90s, and felt genuinely 'new,' to a certain degree (keeping in mind that we got UK and Detroit punk, as well as NYC glam and no wave/post-punk, second and third hand, not live but from records and cassettes).
From today's perspective, however, considering the other things that were happening simultaneously (hip-hop, detroit techno, house, etc), of which I am much more fond, it is sometimes difficult to think back to that moment in guitar-based music without wincing.
For what it's worth, there were bands from approximately that period (a bit later, actually) who seemed to revolve on a magical Louisville-Chicago-DC-San Diego-axis whose music stands up to the test of time much better IMHO, say, than the godawful cliched-guitar-diddling of J Mascis. I am thinking of Slint, Big Black, Jesus Lizard, Rodan, Drive Like Jehu, aMiniature, Jawbox, Shudder to Think, Boys' Life, Crown Hate Ruin, Mickey Finn (the band not the producer), Truman's Water, and any number of other Dischord or Touch & Go bands whose music seemed to be based *not* on indie hipster baloney or ego or proto-emo moaning but on very simple principles: the way the drummer kept time, non-cliched guitar dissonance, and the occasional vocal melody.