I'm a fan of BP, but only because there aren't many viable options. Download numbers are deceiving. Considering BuddyPress is one of the ugliest examples of anything WordPress and has been quirky, at best, for quite some time, I wonder how many of those 500k downloads have actually turned into a live site? It's price-point makes it inviting for those related extensions, but how many of those have been purchased/implemented. I hope the developers of BP don't get sucked into the hype of the numbers. It's had great potential for years but in my opinion has yet to come close to living up to it. Hopeful for its future.