Can I still say something without sinking further into the bog?
Well, I admit, guest opinions matter the most, and a placement in any poll does not necessarily accurately reflect how good a ride is. We can agree on that. But either way, a manufacturer can use the polls as a reference when marketing their rides. From a marketing perspective, the sentence "This coaster won five Golden Tickets", or even "Our company's designs occupied ten of the top thirty spots in the most renowned coaster poll on the Internet", will help you. Perhaps ever so slightly, and they are worth very little if, say, the ride is unreliable or a nightmare to maintain, but it is a selling point, no matter how accurate it may or may not be. No matter if it was a group of five from SoCal who put it in the top spot, or questionaries handed out to every single park guests in a number of parks worldwide, it is a stamp to put in your ride brochure. Neither the Golden Tickets nor the MH polls do reflect the general opinion of coasters (I bet the public loves Godurix, for instance), but it's still an award to refer to. Will the award bring more people to the park? Not likely. Will it make the design look better on paper? More likely. Does it matter in the end? Pehaps only if you find it hard to choose between two designs.
As you said, people love Steel Eel. They love Mystery mine. Mummy, Everest, even SOB has a fan base. A good coaster is a good coaster, regardless of poll placement. But that poll placement is something a manufacturer can put to use. When a magazine tests different speakers, for instance, the winner of the test often slap that "WINNER!" stamp on their next advert. The same can go for coasters, but to a much lesser scale. It may be put as a sub-selling point, as for instance:
Some ride brochure said:
Our Coaster is an ideal choice for any park of your scale. The Coaster designs are renowned for:
- Easy maintenance
- Good safety records
- Large capacity
- Fits any theme
- Riders love it (the Coaster designs occupied three of the top ten spots in the latest [insert poll], and have won seven Golden Tickets over the past ten years).
- Reduced noise compared to other coaster designs
- etc...
I admit, I made it to be a bigger selling point than it is, and other factors can completely overshadow this, to make the coaster unsellable. But I think my point still stands, to some degree, good ratings can be used to help sell a coaster design, if ever so slightly.
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