It did matter. It set the ambitions and goals of a million half-sucky kid-bands in their parents' basements; some of whom went on to not suck and make some great music (or great writing) years and decades later.

I spent the better part of the early 90s absorbing every issue of Guitar for the Practicing Musician, Guitar World, and Bass Player magazines just as much as I did Spin and Rolling Stone, and they opened all kinds of musical doors for my young teenage brain.

Aye, a very good point. For record companies, NME, Spin, Rolling Stone et al, might have been a means to a financial end, but of course music can never be completely reduced to money. It led me all sorts of places and was fuelled by the music press in the 1970-80s.