> Are those 9.7k real users?

I don't quite get this stars and users connection. The stuff I use, I use, I don't need to star it. The reference is saved somewhere else. I bookmark, which is what the star is, stuff that seems interesting. So basically star for me is that I don't actually use the project, most of the time.

And yes, I glance at stars for a popularity cutoff, but forks, PRs, issues are much more telling.