GitHub seems to be continuing (1) to deprecate star information. First the stargazers list was hidden from logged-out users, and now the main stargazers link on repo pages has disappeared too. /stargazers returns a 404 (2) unless you own the repo.

I know many people say stars aren't a real signal, but they were: they made it possible to detect signs of bought stars. Some third-party services even showed the geographic distribution of a repo's stars so you could judge whether they looked fake.

The main point is that whatever reasoning GitHub offers, the outcome is the same: either GitHub is weak against bots, or it would rather control these signals itself, with no way for outsiders to audit them.

1. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48821803

2. https://github.com/tirrenotechnologies/tirreno/stargazers