Honestly, Thriller as a whole album didn't have much impact. The music video of Thriller had amazing impact but that's it.
BEYONCÉ's album is not only better than Thriller but debatably had more impact. Releasing a "Surprise Album" is pretty much engraved as "doing a Beyoncé" now.
The poll right now is just Beyoncé haters and people who think anything MJ did was perfect because he's a legend. Most people voting Thriller probably can't name more than 4 songs on the album that aren't Thriller without using Google.