I dont think that the stars comparison is very fair. One is a complex version control and product infrastructure system that intermediate users or experts in the domain get familiar with. The other is a coding tutorial series that literally everyone and their dog forks or saves when they start out on learning programming - every college student, every high schooler that has a CS 100, etc. etc.

Also, is there any point to being discovered by the legion of new users and learners on github? What about discovery by people that actually have the inclination and expertise, and have shown the willingness to commit to a smaller user-base because it's FOSS?

Not trying to disprove or devalue your perspective, just trying to point out that the masses might be wrong to choose the popular option to help get "discovered".