Jon.....mmmm....your very fist post is here on this thread. Interesting.
Stars in destination spots are good for various reasons listed in the other pages. Like time limits in places. “I only have 3 days to climb at Jtree, which has 4000 routes, so I would like to climb only the 5 star climbs”.
In this scenario the star system seems to work. In a crag that has 60 routes, that is a little different. When is comes to the crag in question, I am deciding not to add stars to any routes. I don’t want to “direct” climbers to certain climbs. With a small crag, you should be able to just look at the climb and it will call you or it wont.
Review of a climb should come after you have climbed it YOURSELF. Screw what a book or movie review says (I never listen to them anyway) and climb it yourself.