Comment by strbean

Having stars isn't a positive metric, it's more that not having stars is a disqualifier unless I want to use someones brand new toy.

My first scan of a GitHub repository is typically: check age of latest commit, check star count, check age of project. All of these things can be gamed, but this weeds out the majority of the noise when looking for a package to serve my needs. If the use case is serious, proper due diligence follows.