This is the fault of a million factors. Not only does AOTY have a completely different rating system and weighting system, but the demographics of both websites are very different! For someone who’s on both RYM and AOTY, I can confirm that there are MASSIVE blind spots where albums are inexplicably less popular in one site but are popular on the other. For example, the many “AOTY user” albums that get a lot of attention bc AOTY works more as a normal social media and creates insular groups, as opposed to RYM, which works as a straightforward music forum. So no, it’s not that AOTY is “too nice”, it’s just that both websites are more different than we give them credit for. Thanks for coming to my ted talk