While I agree with you in principal, in the context of the state of NY, and especially within NYC, ranked choice voting will do nothing more than hand the results of every future election to those who control the political machine.
Think of it this way, in 2018, a top 2 primary in NY-14th district could very well have resulted in both AOC and Crowley, just like it did in the case of various districts in states like California and Washington which have top two primaries, but unlike in AOC's case, the incumbent largely pulled in those who would otherwise be Republican voters.
This same exact story would've played out in the Queens DA race as well. In the democratic primary, there were 3 candidates who could be in some ways marked as left, center and right. The left and center candidates both got around 40% of the vote +- 100 votes, but the right leaning candidate got around 15% of the vote. If there was a second round of voting among this block of voters, the center candidate would've likely done much better in said second round.
The issue you describe is really only likely to happen, when you have something like 10+ competitive candidates, when you have two candidates pulling 30-45% of the votes each, this being a problem becomes way less likely.
Think of it this way, in 2018, a top 2 primary in NY-14th district could very well have resulted in both AOC and Crowley, just like it did in the case of various districts in states like California and Washington which have top two primaries, but unlike in AOC's case, the incumbent largely pulled in those who would otherwise be Republican voters.
This same exact story would've played out in the Queens DA race as well. In the democratic primary, there were 3 candidates who could be in some ways marked as left, center and right. The left and center candidates both got around 40% of the vote +- 100 votes, but the right leaning candidate got around 15% of the vote. If there was a second round of voting among this block of voters, the center candidate would've likely done much better in said second round.
The issue you describe is really only likely to happen, when you have something like 10+ competitive candidates, when you have two candidates pulling 30-45% of the votes each, this being a problem becomes way less likely.