I just mentioned in a response to Ken Dryden in my "best historical releases" Night Lights thread that I avoid ranking of any kind in that list that I do each year--and I don't cap it at 5, 10, or what have you. Some artistic endeavors clearly succeed--however that's defined--more than others. But attempting to apply some sort of sports-stats or election-count methodology to jazz recordings, or any other works of art for that matter, may be a fun game... but not really an accurate way IMO to reflect the worthiness of such works. Your point about the value of such lists in introducing records and artists to those, both broader-audience and more deep-dive listeners like us here on this board, is one I definitely agree with, though.