It's a big improvement on their 2003 list (which was slightly updated in 2012), but won't provoke any fewer arguments. Lists like these mainly exist as content providers for barroom and chatroom arguments for obsessive music fans.
The 2003/2012 list was hopelessly stuck in an outdated mindset from two generations previous. 23 out of the top 50 were released between 1965-1971. Nearly all of them were by white male dominated rock bands. Such a homogeneous canon isn't defensible in 2020 by any means. The new list has 15 albums from those years, not all of which were in the previous group of 23, and it's a much more diverse group of artists.
As for the top ten:
"The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill". This makes absolutely no sense. We know that both artists/industry types as well as critics voted in this poll, but the scoring and weighting of votes was not revealed, nor were the individual ballots. And you can't rule out any "editorial decisions" that would favour the optics of certain albums appearing in certain spots in the list, for example, the optics of having a female POC in the top ten of the poll. Would any serious fan or critic claim this as the greatest hip-hop album of all time?
"Blood on the Tracks". This has emerged as the definitive Dylan album over the past twenty or so years of polls from any number of outlets. Albums from the sixties were consistently overrated for decades. Similarly, the seventies were underrated and the pendulum has now fully swung back the other way. People prefer the more confessional, softer and personal albums of the seventies to their more bombastic counterparts from the sixties.
"Purple Rain". This was probably boosted by Prince's passing a few years ago, but who cares? He was a genius, and how many eighties albums can claim to be more iconic than this?
"Rumours". My favourite album in this top ten. Definitely deserving of its spot. It jumped from #26 in the 2003 poll.
"Nevermind". If any decade is underrated now, it's the nineties. Hip hop is now well represented, but rock, electronic, and a myriad of other genres have been shunted to the far reaches of the list, if they even appear at all. Nirvana at #6 is a safe and boring pick to represent this part of the decade, as nonchalant a pick as "Exile on Main Street" used to be on similar lists 25 years ago (or even eight years ago -- it was #7 on the last RS poll). Of note from the nineties: "Loveless" at #73, "Parklife" and "Screamadelica" going back to back at #438 and #437 has got to be a rib on somebody, and stone cold classics from The Magnetic Fields and Yo La Tengo somehow fail to crack the top 400.
"Abbey Road". Everyone knows that "Sgt. Pepper's" isn't the best Beatles album in any conversation taking place after 1973 (although RS somehow still thought so in 2012). So at least that's been fixed. But who declared "Abbey Road" the best one? Its reputation has been on the rise, sure enough. In 2003/2012, it was at #14 -- behind FOUR other Beatles albums. For me it's still "Revolver" or the White Album.
"Songs in the Key of Life". Incredibly, this wasn't even in top 50 in the previous poll (although "Innervisions" was #24. I think Stevie's AOR run in the eighties undermined his work and made people forget just how edgy and ahead of the times (while being simultaneously of his time) he was in the seventies. It probably goes without saying that race had something to do with that. White guitarists had their fine reputations frozen from the sixties onwards. Notbody ever forgot what Eric Clapton or the Rolling Stones meant regardless of how much crap they released from 1975-1989.
"Blue". This pick might have surprised a lot of people, but in the past decade, it was #2 in RS' 50 greatest albums of all time by women, and #1 in a similar top 150 list by NPR. I have no issues with this pick. It's one of the most elegant albums ever made and I find new wondrous things to ponder in its lyrics with every listen.
"Pet Sounds". Better than the Beatles -- it's official! Brian Wilson can finally die happy. It's now "Pet Sounds" turn to be the sixties album that Everybody Can Agree On.
"What's Going On". In much the same way that Springsteen drifts in and out of critical consciousness depending on the politics of the time, we need Marvin Gaye's guidance right now.
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