If you're talking best Yes post 1980 then it's easily in the running for the top spot. However Yes put out too many great albums in the 70s for me to seriously consider it a top 3 contender but maybe I could go top 5 or 6 with it, and I wouldn't begrudge anyone for ranking it higher.

And yes absolutely, Jon was often the main guy holding everything together for the band. Even when he didn't come up with the ideas (which he often did) he was still the leader and had the vision to help tie everything together. The current Yes are totally rudderless without him. It's not the lack of his voice that hurts Yes the most, it's the lack of his leadership. Luckily with Drama and FFH Trevor Horn provided the leadership the band needed, but H&E doesn't have any sort of figure like that. Davison tries (I assume he probably tried very hard considering how many songs he wrote for the album) but can't help but fall short.