I'd agree: the newly established Debates forum and their gangs of "I'll recommend anything contentious I agree with" dominate the recommended posts list, while the purpose of the Debates forum was to avoid the my gang / your gang warfare that was taking over the general forum.
I still think a daily recommended list would be great addition. Does that 'loosely associated' point also count as 'pinging my own thread'? (I wrote one about this before, but nobody cared...) I think so. Bad me. Bad bad bad.