The Reference card is one of the worst cards on this list. Why does it have 10x more votes than the other cards? That card is fast, but is loud and runs hot due to the blower fan. The strix cards have RGB (not great but there), and nearly silent cooling at both idle and mid loads due to their 3 fan system. Also the Gigabyte cards (both radeon and geforce) have large dissipation fans that allow fore more overclocking, and look better.
Higher Price = More Votes.
The Founders Edition is nice but I agree with you, there are other cards on this list that are better. I personally have the Asus ROG Strix 1080Ti Overclocked. It's fantastic and quieter than my case fans. Only time I hear it is when I'm doing gpu intensive work. Playing various games on Ultra settings and uncapped fps don't even get the fans purring.
However, given the current state of gpu prices I would sit on the money and not waste it on the Founders Edition.