In reply to Gary.

If I’m searching for a plugin, I do want see those that have an established track record with high numbers of active installs to generally outrank those that don’t.

You should want the most relevant results, then be able to filter if you want to. Having the base search algorithm bias the results out of the gate (see https://wptavern.com/wordpress-plugin-directory-redesign-why-so-many-people-feel-their-feedback-was-ignored#comment-217148 above) is a terrible idea.

The fact that they seem to be rigging the results in a decidedly non-transparent manner hurts their credibility. If I search for 'search' then the most relevant results should be at the top. If I want to filter by installs, there should be a clear UI that allows me to do so ("Show plugins with more than 1000/5000/10000 installs"). That way I can see if there's some hot new plugin that does just what I want or, if I want the security of going with something that's been out there a while, I can narrow the results.