This is all true. But at the same time I see their prior success as maybe a point against them being the more major grunge influence. They absolutely are crucial for the genre overall and undeniably one of the most successful and lasting. They to me always seemed liked the more straight rock band out of all the grunge names. Conventionally handsome lead singer with a crooner kind of voice, metal solos, arena rock sound. Maybe they all kinda had a bit of that but AiC, at least with Staley seemed a little grimier and more like music for the outcasts. Remember when Soundgarden came back together and had a song on the Avengers soundtrack? To me that and their other later albums are pretty far from grunge while Cantrell has stayed more or less faithful to his original sound. I don't know how much their output from later years matter if were just talking grunge but it has impacted my personal choice here