Any metric that becomes a target ceases to be a good metric. The wrinkle is that measures that don't easily quantify are more resistant. For example, showing p

Any metric that becomes a target ceases to be a good metric. The wrinkle is that measures that don't easily quantify are more resistant. For example, showing provable use by other reputable or trusted projects, or a significant amount of resources allocated to maintenance, or ... Really just anything that can't be reduced to a single number in a canonical way will in the long run prove far more useful for longer. This of course shifts some of the burden onto potential users to assess things more critically, and forecloses direct numerical comparison. But the idea that you could just look at a number and make such comparisons was faulty from the get go.