Thank you for pointing this out. It achieves what I was wanting without exposing the actual installs numbers, but those are really not needed for something like this.
I understand what your are saying, but I find meaning in a “popularity” sort. To me popularity (installs) is an objective measurable. Any type of “like” measurable is going to be subjective. Yes, number of instantiations would be more meaningful, but, how much would it change the ranking? I have no way of knowing, but I think instantiation counts will have the same “bias” that popularity counts have.
I still think that a beginner could not go wrong by exploring the top N plugins in the popularity ranking, where N is determined by the user’s time, patience and determination. It could be 25. It could be 50…