> I'm thinking like "you had 200 GitHub stars before coming to us so we start you with 200 stars" as a migration process. maybe they wouldn't be as reputable but everyone knows it's gamed anyway, so why not?

And how will the project accumulate more?

> everyone knows it's gamed anyway, so why not?

Then why do they still have purchase value?

Copy the same way people can star projects to the new platform too, but maybe allow people to buy them directly from you to cut out the middleman. It could be very efficient.

> everyone knows it's gamed anyway, so why not?

Arbitrage. Devs know its gamed. VCs less so.