Mark Stryker (of this parish) made an interesting point a few days ago on twitter about how jazz critics polls in the last few years seem to be increasingly skewing away from inside / straight ahead / mainstream jazz and towards more 'outside' stuff, when compared to the strikingly mixed / miscellaneous choices in the 1980s. I think it is a point that is particularly noticeable this year. Even the Jazz Times poll set out above skews heavily avant (albeit a sort of mainstream-ised version of it). Of the top ten, eight fall into the avant garde bracket.
I'd be interested to see how it compares with the readers' poll, when it comes out.