For me the biggest determining factor in where I rank an album is "how often do I play it."
Based on just that criteria, Images & Words will be my #1 Dream Theater album for a long time because I must have repeat played that thing 10,000 times. It was ALL I listened to until they released Awake, which, to me, is Dream Theater's most overrated album. I was disappointed with it then and to this day I rank it in the bottom 1/3 of their catalog. I rarely listen to it and usually the only time I hear any of those songs is on the live albums. The only other albums that are like that for me are the debut and The Astonishing. I'll even admit I've never made it all the way through the first disc and I don't even know what the second disc sounds like, after 4 or 5 tracks I'd heard enough. It's just not the kind of thing I listen to Dream Theater for.
One thing about this band that I've learned over the years is they're never afraid to try something new and different and I give them a lot of credit for that even if I don't always like the outcome. It takes a lot of courage to put yourself out there like that and I admire it.
Anyway, so as I mentioned already, the number of times I go back to an album is the thing that tells me the most about how I like it and unfortunately Distance Over Time, while having a few really good songs, is also going to end up ranking in the bottom 1/3. In fact, those are my bottom 3 albums, The Astonishing in last place, Distance over Time next to last and the debut just above that. Yes, I like the debut more than Distance over Time and The Astonishing. The debut is really an incredible album, musically. The vocals are, well, they could have been better.