Although I'm not a fan of GH, I appreciate the ability to see how popular/valid some project is by looking at the number of stars (I know this is far from a perfect signal).
I'm much less likely to try projects that have a low number of stars, or projects in different places.
One of the things Forgejo has been working on is federation, such that hopefully someday we can replicate the discoverability of GitHub without a central provider.
