Craven is definitely one of the words I'm groping for to express just what is wrong with this.

I really don't understand the "seems fair" comments.

I (stupidly I see now) treat the stars as feature just for me, like a bookmark in my own browser. There for my use, not anyone else's.

Obviously that was silly since they are public and anything that is public is someone somewhere's currency, and anything that is currency will expose the lowest of the low human behavior.

And this IS automated. The automation is in the form of a policy rather than a scripting language, but it's still a mechanistic rule where a star is produced by application of an if-this-then-that, and by a transaction, purchased exactly like with money. By at least those TWO different means this is not an honest reflection of a users regard or admiration or expression of value.

Github surely would see that as devaluing stars and harming a feature of their site. Surely github does not want stars to become like amazon reviews.