I still think the term progressive is kinda pretentious.

I don't think the term itself is pretentious, I think it's often used as a synonym for saying "pretentious". When someone uses the word in a derogatory way, they usually mean it to say that the band is pretentious art-rock.

To say that Rush, Queensryche, Genesis didn't write music in the hopes that musicians AND non-musicians would enjoy it is rather absurd.

You're right, but there is still a tendency for prog rock to be mostly appreciated by other musicians, regardless of the intentions of the composers. But I will re-iterate that those bands were primarily intending to amuse themselves with the music rather than the general public. Rush in particular re-states this point regularly.

I mean, yes, sure, the whole point of music is to perform it to an audience. But the difference is that these bands don't sit there and try to write hits. They write music that makes THEM happy, and put it out there and hope that there will be other people with the same tastes.

As far as I'm concerned, that makes prog rock the OPPOSITE of pretentious. Don't you?