I was there for punk, and that was a lot of my music growing up.
Sex Pistols were an influential group, manipulated by a hypemaster. But "punk rock" started before that.
There were no Sex Pistols before the Ramones toured England. The Ramones themselves weren't trying to be "punk", just getting back to 3-4 chord rock basics.
The Clash got lumped in with punk rock because they weren't the arena rock of the time (maybe that works for most punk rock bands).
The Ramones didn't start punk rock. Lou Reed, New York Dolls helped, but they didn't start it.
If you have to categorize music, punk rock is just a reaction against formula, bombastic crap. Buddy Holley was a punk rocker for his time.
There's a lot of crap put out now under the name of punk rock, or punk with various qualifiers. Bullshit.
I was there, and part of, what most people think of as punk rock. I suppose you can redefine it now, when Ramones tunes once seen as unfit for radio are now used as jingles for Pepsi commercials, but that's not punk, motherfuckers.