RYM are a solid starting point but definitely not ideal if your trying to dig deep for "hidden gems". The top 200 albums every year at any given time is just a glorified popularity contest. You'll still find lots of good albums, but ranking seems like more of a byproduct of marketing than anything else.
I have a good example of this. My number one album last year (
Designs In Rhythm by
Ice Choir) was a phenomenal pop experience yet it was only ranked #617 for 2016. The album was released independently on Bandcamp and the guy behind the project doesn't have a massive
PR machine.
The music is fantastic, but you'd likely never discover that album on RYM unless you got down to a very specific set of search criteria based on genre tags related to synth-pop and then started looking at rating, number of votes, etc.
The better your search criteria...the more likely you will find what you are looking for.