Yeah theres little distinction between the seasons in each tier. One thing about S18 (and others) that might throw off its overall ranking is the impact some of those people had in future seasons. Seeing Coach/JT/Tyson later on makes us revisit S18 with different feelings and probably overrate at least some of their play in their original outing.
Similarly, it's tough to watch something like S8 and get a grasp on players like Hatch, Rob Cesternino, etc. because they were so incredible in their original seasons and expectations are insanely high for follow up seasons. That's why it's really hard to come up with an accurate ranking of players/winners of the game if you don't just limit it to people who have only played once. Not saying I dislike returning players, but it skews our perception of how good/bad they were in certain seasons.