alt Hacker NewsLook at the graph - https://api.star-history.com/svg?repos=facebook/react,opencl...
React and Linux got their 200K stars slowly but surely over 10 years. OpenClaw got their 200K stars in like 3 months! Is this any meaningful comparison?
Getting 200K stars today doesn't mean much because today stars can be bought. There's a big shady thriving business of selling stars. Stars today can be generated using swarm of thoughtless agents. What's the use of counting these stars when they don't mean anything anymore?
I agree with your point, and am only responding to the last sentence.
Starring can be useful to the starer. They are just counted because it is countable. Whether you find the number meaningful remains up to you.