This discussion about featured themes not including upsells is ironic, not to say hypocritical. For how many years do we have featured plugins that include upsells? Even installed with WordPress itself.

The “featured” sections need to be handled transparently, based on the merit of the plugin or theme, and completely eliminating conflicts of interest.

There is no point in featuring +5 year old themes, and having a featured plugin section always with the same plugins, several from the same company, and promoting upsells. There is clearly a conflict of interest in the way these plugins are being featured.