You don't buy into generalizations even as you make them? The balloon thing didn't get big until extremely late into the Dead scene and it wasn't the OG hippies that supported that sort of thing. I was unfortunately born into a family of druggies, and not hippies, so I got introduced to a giant balloon at my first big jam-band concert and assumed it was simply a given at the scene, but this book I read by a Dead head from the mid 80's who got introduced into the scene the classical way via acid and shrooms and looking down on the total burn-outs who couldn't stand up or speak after a concert and always drew the worst of the police and media attention. The hippies got preferential treatment in this book as an eclectic race of road warriors while the bros sucking on balloons were seen as belligerent leeches and party thrashers and gate crashing stinky bastards (and put into their rightful place by
Keller Williams) who did nothing but put stress on Jerry Garcia's already fragile heart condition by being assholes. Obviously the reality is there were plenty shit-head hippies and plenty of harmless people who simply arrived to the party too late and just grabbed what was available, but they weren't always apart of the scene by any means.
I really have no love for Umphery's Mcgee btw, they're good musically, but it's like, who cares? idk, they've just always tried my nerves. I don't want my rock stars to be accountants. That was a realization I had while selling, and tripping on, acid at an Umphery's show and wishing I wasn't in a crowd of people who were showing off by counting the random time-signature changes that differentiated the otherwise monotonous music.
The Grateful Dead have encompassed a large portion of American music into their lexicon, including roots and southern music, so that's where I see the similarities with Widespread Panic. Not to mention the traveling aspect, which is no small thing. But I would certainly see more similarities with Allman Brothers and Little Feat than the Dead when it comes to Panic.