It's not just west coast jazz. Music journalists snub their nose at anything that doesn't have the "right pedigree". If it doesn't fit their narrative for what jazz should be, it might as well not exist.

That included decades of Japanese jazz musicians, conservatory-trained session wizards without a hard-luck backstory like Michael Brecker, etc.

As much as modern music sharing/streaming has its downsides, the best thing it ever did was make everything discoverable and make the opinions of gatekeeping assholes irrelevant.

You don't need respect. Respect doesn't even pay the bills. You just need listeners and a way to sell to them.