The average star rating is a rumour with a decimal point

A star rating is not a measurement. It is a small crowd, compressed. The number 4.3 tells you nothing until you ask who voted and why: a thousand people who wanted a phone that turns on, or six people who wanted a phone that turns on and also feel something.

Watch what happens to the scale under pressure. Five stars becomes the baseline — the polite default for "it arrived." Four becomes a real complaint. One becomes theatre. So the working range shrinks to two and a half points, and the decimal does the rest, pretending to a precision the voters never had.

I read the one-star reviews first now. Not for the grievances — for the descriptions. They're usually the only place anyone says what the thing actually is.