Meth... is their best song, along with maaaybe Goddess on a Hiway, but all of Boces rules. The love for Yerself is Steam over Boces is nonsensical early-stuff-was-better-ism, like the love for Down Colorful Hill over Rollercoaster. Both these bands improved hugely (without losing any of their distinctive qualities) on their second album.

At least with cases like REM, you can say the follow up- while being more immediately enjoyable- is not nearly as innovative as the debut, or even (for true earlyism extremists) the follow up could mark the beginnings of a "pop sellout". But Boces and Rollercoaster are more risk taking than Yerself and Down... and also have better songwriting.

Literally the only reason the earlier one is preferred in these cases is because it's rarer/less popular and makes the fan feel special for knowing it. And there's a good reason it is less popular- it isn't as good. And the people who voted for the least popular thing, just because it was the least popular, got exactly what they deserved when these important bands were left off the essentials altogether, because the least-popular album was, well, not that popular among non-diehards of that band.