I didn't realize you were #TeamFLY on this one, Bondo.
Definitely have never played a musical instrument (well, a little harmonica, but was not good at it), but I'm pretty open about the fact that a lot of instrumental only work just sounds like noise to me, it's like with paintings and stuff like that, the nuance of shading it something I generally can see to an extent, but the minor differences are generally lost on me and it all looks relatively like it's most basic form (whether that be red or a guitar or whatever).
Lyrics provide a backbone, evoking poetry, which is where the listener's subjectivity intersects with the intentions of the artist, and thus meaning, or even purpose, is formed. Feel like that's the case regardless of medium (though more dynamic visual ones like games or film can tell their stories or prod at theme without language because there's a lot more going on), but music without lyrics, to me, is largely an exercise in futility and becomes meaninglessly lost in the subjectivity, or specialized in a way (that is to say theoretical, or requiring a specialized language to discuss it) that is isolating and keeps me at a distance regardless as I didn't study music theory. Who is to tell me that a low quiet building drum evokes terror or fear or a call to action if I listen to it and experience sadness or excitement or unfathomable joy? The person with the knowledge of theory, I suppose, but is that just not an agreed upon subjectivity from the elites? FLY certainly can't say (or could, though is tired), but either way it hold little allure to me. There's no world in which any of Beethoven or Mozart's works are objectively better than "Picacho" by Young Thug, unless the person doesn't speak English, in which case I suppose that song is lost on them as well.
The only good classical music is John Cage's 4'33".