If stars were really for bookmarking, the solution would be simple: don't display total stars publicly. But we have browser bookmarks for this, and there is a w

If stars were really for bookmarking, the solution would be simple: don't display total stars publicly. But we have browser bookmarks for this, and there is a way to subscribe to repo updates which is much more granular than a star. Taken together this suggests that the star function was always designed as a popularity contest.