Larks' Tongues in Aspic vs Relayer

As much as it disappoints me, the truth is that Yes and Genesis are no longer the gateway bands for those getting into prog for the first time. Sure, for some maybe but not for the majority of the younger prog fans. It wasn't like this for a long time but Yes and most of the other classic seventies prog bands(with the exception of PF and maybe KC; Rush too but they weren't really part of the original prog wave in most respects)have been buried underneath all the prog metal and newer prog stuff(including post rock)that gets more recognition and attention these days. Ultimately, most people(especially younger folks)are social creatures and will gravitate towards what their friends like and what their friends think is hip and cool. If liking ELP and Yes and Genesis isn't cool or hip then they are out as far as prog goes. Most of the fans on this forum though go deeper and are a bit more open minded and hardcore so don't really make up the typical prog fans(same thing for some of the other prog sites and fb groups). Most of the general discussion boards though like reddit and all the gamer ones and general music forums that have prog mentioned or a special little prog section seem to get responses mostly from the young hipster prog fans who are in love with Riverside, Haken and Opeth but don't have any PG era Genesis or Yes albums or more obscure vintage albums. 

This was just north of the border, though the people I was talking to were actually American (from Colorado). But I definitely agree with you that, statistically speaking, Yes is something of an obscurity among us young'uns; even those of us into prog. Although pretty much every young prog fan I've met in real life has been into 70's prog, I've definitely also noticed the prog metal fixation from browsing other online music sites. I'm sure if you asked the average millennial what they knew about prog, the most common response would definitely be "what?", which would then be followed by "you mean like Pink Floyd?", which would then be followed by "Yeah, I love Dream Theater, Between The Buried and Me, [insert more prog metal bands here], Porcupine Tree, and Rush!", and then way down there on the outer tail of the bell curve you'd have those like myself who are actually into Yes, King Crimson, et al.

With that in mind, though, it seems to me that of the young people who frequent this forum, we do tend to be biased slightly more towards the jazz/avant/experimental side of things than the symphonic prog of yore, but there are still plenty of us who admire the classics. That said, I don't think that we make up a big enough fraction of forum-goers for this to have any significant sway on the outcome of polls like this one.

So I think it mostly has to do with how much King Crimson is "authentic", "creative" and free of boundaries compared to most well-known prog bands (not to say that this makes them better btw).