Stones were the main draw, which meant most of that enormous crowd of 150,000+ would have been blues rock and hard rock fans. They followed Todd Rundgren/Utopia (prog rock) and were followed by 10cc (art rock), artists that crowd was almost guaranteed to prefer them to. Then 10cc took the stage very late, whether because of a sound system problem (the official explanation) or because they didn't want to follow Lynyrd Skynyrd (also very likely), and the Stones took the stage 2-1/2 hours late.
So you had a sympathetic audience, very impressed by what was a great show, with HOURS to talk about how great it was, before the Stones finally appeared.
Article about the festival at Loudersound.com: https://www.loudersound.com/features/knebworth-76-stones-late-show
That article is at least slightly off, since it gives the impression the band had opened with "Freebird" and won the crowd over immediately then, when in fact "Freebird" had closed their set.
There's no way to know whether Lynyrd Skynyrd would have been overshadowed by the Stones if Mick & Co. had followed them immediately, rather than hours later.
But well-performed Southern rock is always a tough act to follow. I loved 10cc, but any time I wanted to hear hard rock or Southern rock, I did not listen to "The Things We Do For Love."
One of my favorite bands, Golden Earring, had been known for often rivaling or overshadowing bands they supported (their management, who also managed the Who, said that Golden Earring and Lynyrd Skynyrd were the only supporting bands that got encores).
But when Golden Earring toured in the UK in 1974, with Lynyrd Skynyrd supporting them, some reports said they were blown away.
I did some checking of setlists for both bands on that tour, and although Skynyrd's setlist was short, it included both "Freebird" and "Sweet Home Alabama."
And then Golden Earring would open with "She Flies On Strange Wings," a prog/psychedelic hit for them in the Netherlands a few years earlier that would have been almost unknown to their UK audience. If they'd opened with "Candy's Going Bad" or "Just Like Vince Taylor" instead, two of the harder-rocking songs off their hit album Moontan, their set would have sounded better following Lynyrd Skynyrd. But they didn't, and they included more prog rock, and even one song referring to the popular Dutch hobby of raising pigeons that was NOT likely to work anywhere outside the Netherlands. They had a much stronger set in 1977 for the spring concert at London's Rainbow Theatre that became their first live album.
They still got along with Lynyrd Skynyrd. Lead singer Barry Hay got along with Ronnie Van Zant so well that one evening they were roughed up and thrown out of a British club by the bouncers after drunkenly harassing other patrons for not sufficiently appreciating the band performing at that club: https://earofnewt.com/2014/04/20/golden-earrings-barry-hay-recalls-getting-beaten-up-with-ronnie-van-zant/
But then, I haven't read of any band they toured with that Golden Earring didn't get along with. They especially liked partying with Keith Moon, though George Kooymans was lucky not to die of an overdose after taking the same drugs Moon was taking one night.
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