Several of the company’s free WordPress themes consistently rank in the theme directory’s popular list. Most of them are child themes of their popular Primer theme, which boasts 40,000+ active installs when not counting child theme installs.

Yes, I wonder why. Could it be that they overtake all others with their larger user/customer base and traffic so that when their theme goes live at .org that they get a massive jump of active installs which gets them on the popular list without effort? Once there, they will always be there and solidifies their popular standing as a result. The same goes for any source with a massive traffic load that guarantees popular status at .org. Very unfair advantage for a lot of others who don't have that level of traffic and userbase.

That Popular list needs to go.