You could argue if JP, SW and the Opeth guys should be in the 2018 list.
JP just did the G3 Tour but didn't release anything new, same for the others.
Having them in the list gives it a kind of 'Career Award' feeling.
I think the Between the Buried and Me guys and Ihsahn should have made the top 10 based on the stuff they released this year.
Haken and Tesseract are obvious choices for me.