You are right. People delight in making their own ornate rules, which get as complicated as some Medieval debate about angels on the head of a pin. I guess it's pretty hard to decide, but I would tend to prefer to keep the totally new releases in a list to themselves and give any others special mention elsewhere. But new films weren't necessarily completed in the release year. Look at the "structure" your man Hoberman imposed on his 2007 list:
(Speaking of structure, my list is restricted to movies made over the last five years that had their first New York theatrical engagements in 2007.)