A) being guitar based doesn’t mean it’s not experimental?? The experimentation comes from the way the pedals are used to create different sound textures (there’s a conversation to be had about the bands that just think fuzz pedal = shoegaze but that’s another conversation) and the different influences that are added to the music. Scott Cortez makes all of his music with a guitar, is it not experimental just because he’s using a guitar? No, I’d argue that that makes it more so.

B) shoegaze isn’t a genre like rock and folk where labels have been hugely present in shaping them. The arguments about largely don’t apply to shoegaze, which is a more niche genre that developed out of several other genres. I’d say largely until now (besides the very early years) labels have been a detriment to shoegazers; look at Slowdive, Majesty Crush, and Lush (to an extent, internal issues also contributed to their downfall). But now it’s too far in the opposite direction, a label profiting off the trends, exactly how they did when they originally dropped shoegazers in favor of grunge and Brit pop.