@feos:
Well having read that over, to me it looks more like a retrospective thread, and not so much a 'this is the best we've got' thread. Even at the time of it's creation (2012) it seems to be looking backwards. Now in 2016 when TASing has matured considerably and standards for runs have risen very high, the things that were eye catching before aren't so much anymore. I think it's really apparent with the amazing recent NES run of Legend of Zelda. Surely that run is of very high quality, but really it's now what we expect on average from a good NES run (currently it isn't even starred.) If Mega Man II were published today for example, would it even stand out at all? Personally I don't think so.
I guess this is what I mean when I say the list is dated. TASing is just so much more developed and the list hasn't kept up well. Mario suddenly getting powerups from Super Metroid is simply on a different level then 25 minutes of Mario walking casually to the right.
For your own reason for Gimmick:
I suddenly think Gimmick must be in that list. Though the game is not famous at all, it appears as a TAS gem and it's unique features get abused insanely well. It has a deep and complicated engine and really conduct the sense of TASing the gameplay way.
For NES maybe this is true enough, but it's not really that complicated when you have runs like F-Zero Jack Cup and Super Monkey Ball in stars for comparison. I would say a similar thing holds when comparing Ikaruga or even Pocky and rocky to Gradius, the level of play is just that much higher.
I guess to sum up I would say that newcomer rec should keep up better with what the State of the Art in TASing is, because that frontier has gotten pushed very far forward recently and is still ongoing.
EDIT: I should also say that some runs do hold up well over time, that Superstar Soccer run is just really funny.