Macross is one of the first huge TV anime that was specifically made by anime fans. It remixed pieces of older shows, like Space Battleship Yamato, and mixed in a city pop soundtrack to gain a broad appeal.

Arguably, the entire Battletech franchise is like copy-of-a-copy Macross that went a very different direction that found a different valid form.

I think you're mixing it up with Robotech, which adapted the first Macross show, Mospeeda, and Southern Cross into one big show. The Macross bit is mostly intact, but the English music sucks so much ass that it really messes up the show.

Battletech did snag the Valkyrie robots from Macross at some point (though I'm not too knowledgeable about that franchise), and Transformers used one of the Valkyrie toys as like Starscream or someone early on.

The original Macross show and movie are genuine classics - but they do mark a big shift away from earlier mecha shows like Gundam and Votoms, since their creators are mostly only being inspired by other anime rather than the broader influences Tomino and Takahashi drew from.