Do stars matter? Yes, of course.
How I proceed?
- Quick run through README or the official doc/tutorial
- Google "alternatives to this-new-lib"
- Google "this-new-lib VS. alternative-lib" seeking pros and cons
- How is it rated? What kind of bugs are reported?
- Am I comfortable with their concepts?
- How do handle some outlined limitations? Or I better turn to alternatives. The question here being the way I rate the ratio woraround-time-and-complexity / learning-curve
- When performance matters...
As for me, I pay much attentions to good design practices. Like moving from React to Vue.JS