I'm also interested in the importance you put on the rewatch. I feel the ranking should mostly be based on how a season made me feel when I first saw it, no?

Thing is, I forget what happened in past seasons too quickly to not use the rewatch as a basis for my rankings. I also tend to notice more subtle editing notes during a re-watch because I already know what to expect. For example, I used to rank the Cook Islands as a top-tier season because I absolutely loved that Yul won over Ozzy. It was during the re-watch that I realized how absolutely overpowered Yul's idol was, and the insane number of twists that production introduced into the game.

I haven't rewatched HvV or Samoa, but I remember being completely amazed by how HvV turned out and how disappointed I was when Natalie won (although I'm pretty sure I would have been disappointed regardless of who among Samoa's Top 7 or 8 won).

I tend to agree with you about the Philippines, although I really can't rank it low. I felt like it had a very bland first three episodes, picked up mid-game, peaked at the RC / Jeff boots, plateaued until the Penner TC, and quickly lost steam towards the end. What I love about it is the editors, IMO, did a very good job at presenting a generally interesting set of post-merge characters, something that, again IMO, cannot be said for A LOT of the other seasons.