This is somewhat analogous to programmers who type very fast but delete half of what they type. This is very subjective again, most of the deletes can be legit

This is somewhat analogous to programmers who type very fast but delete half of what they type. This is very subjective again, most of the deletes can be legit deletes. There is a difference in the mistakes that are deleted and deletes that arise because of a thorough process change. I digress, but to a routine observer the person typing fast appears like a pro, someone who is really good at their job. While this can be true of other professions like a carpenter being good at his craft will be extremely fast, am not sure the same holds true for the typing speed of programmers. If you are a trial and error type of programmer then of course speed matters a lot because it has a direct correlation on how fast you can iterate and increase your sample space of trials. The frequency of commits and PRs can be seen in the same light. So IMO it's hard to find a true universal measure to identify the top programmers.