It's the same for restaurants in low-volume areas. That under-4-star death knell is a killer for sales.

On the other hand, I love perusing those 3-star restaurants as I find so many hidden gems covered in the tears of LLC owners and bored hostesses.

If I were a lesser man, I totally am, I would write a book concerning that social theory called the Star Divide.

Hopefully it would be better than the related Black Mirror episode (Nosedive), which started with an interesting premise, but handled it in a very crass and immature way, more reminiscent of stupid Hollywood teen comedies (e.g. American Pie).

I'd read that book.

I want to value 5-star ratings like this: 1 star = -3, 2 star = -1, 3 star = 0, 4 star = +1, 5 star = +3. Works the same for restaurant tipping: $0.02 = you should be fired and this place should be closed, 0% = you suck and I won't ever come back, 10% = you blew it this time, 15% = median performance, 20% = you did better than most, 20% and yes we will also order booze and/or desserts = you're at least 98th percentile.

I dislike systems that end up being like this: 1 star = -8, 2 star = -4, 3 star = -2, 4 star = -1, 5 star = 0.

I need to be able to express when things are good as well as when things are bad. When everyone and everything has a 4.5-star average rating, there's no way to tell when anything stands out as being better than similar things. You can only see when things are significantly worse.

What else matters when choosing a car hire?

I'm not opposed to it being a pass/fail rating, but that should be made explicit. It's perfectly reasonable for a user to think that a 3/5 star rating means "I had a perfectly fine experience, no problems, nothing exceptional" when in reality if a driver gets too many 3 star ratings they are booted from the service.