Please excuse my naiveté as I’m still new to this website and these threads.
Been trying to read and catch up as much as I can.

I find it funny and fascinating that people get upset at these lists (Michelin, Zagat, San Pellegrino, etc.) as to what the best restaurants in the world are.
Even funnier are the comments from people knocking or praising these restaurants down because of a personal experience they had.
I’m sure if everyone was to come up with their own top 10 list, it would get bounced around just as much, simply for the fact that these top ranking are so subjective, especially when you get to this level.

I think each ranking has their problems and it’s up to each person to see what’s important to them and which ranking they rely on.

For me, I think San Pellegrino is a joke for one main reason. Up until a few years ago, the whole voting process was a joke. I still think the current limitation on how many restaurants you can vote for, what region it has to come from, the number of “newer” restaurants you have to vote on, and other restricting rules make this survey a joke.

Quick story- A few years ago, El Bulli received an inordinate amount of votes as the best restaurant in the world. There were so many vote for the restaurant in that one year that it would have been impossible for that restaurant to accommodate so many diners. When questioned about this, San Pellegrino said that the voters were not limited to only voting for restaurants they have eaten at. They were allowed to vote for restaurants based on information received from other people or publications to form their vote. I’m still perplexed how you can vote for food, ambiance, and service at a restaurant you have never been to. If you have to rely upon someone else’s information to rank a restaurant, you should probably ask that third person to vote for it rather that yourself.

To answer the OP’s question- I actually people’s plans can be severely affected. For example, getting a reservation at 11 Madison Park is much more difficult that it was a year ago. Not saying it’s impossible, just more difficult. I personally would not go out of my way to eat at a top 10 San Pellegrino restaurant but I’m sure many do as evidenced by the difficulty of getting into some of these places and news of reservations filling up for the whole year on the first day they are available.