Comment by troupe

If you are asking yourself, "will this do what it says it will do?" and you are comparing a project that hasn't had any updates in the last 3 years vs one that has seen a constant stream of updates over the last 3 years, which one do you think has a greater probability of doing what it needs to do?

Now I do get your point. There is probably a better metric to use. Like for example, how many people are adding this library to their project and not removing it. But if you don't have that, the number of recent updates to a project that has been around for a long time is probably going to steer you in the right direction more often than not.