Stars at some point served as "social proof" of something (eyeballs, users, interest), but Goodhart's law struck. At least three investor groups are explicitly

Stars at some point served as "social proof" of something (eyeballs, users, interest), but Goodhart's law struck. At least three investor groups are explicitly looking at lists of the most starred / forked projects and throwing money at those with "Instagram-style popularity", so we've reached the stage where people can trade in the "internet points" for real money.