Why are we so sure time is a better judge than prize committees?
My all-time favorite American novel is
The Town, Pulitizer Prize, 1951.
A check shows it's still in print, but there's no eBook and, Googling, I'm not finding it to be assigned in college classes, and English professors aren't publishing scholarly articles about it. I'd say it is, if not forgotten, certainly neglected.
There may be some objective measures of what makes for a bad novel, but it's hard to say what makes a good one. In as much as it has something to do with interesting the reader, this varies so much from person to person. What some on Mobileread say is of supreme interest I find a supreme bore, and visa versa.
Not that the prize process is perfect, or could be. I've read all Richard Russo's novels, and thought
Bridge of Sighs was his best. By far. But the one before that had won the Pulitzer, which I suppose pretty much disqualified the next.