Yes. I was sought and employed specifically because of the work visible on my Github profile from 2017 - 2019. My body of work on Github directly contributed to my candidacy for the job I currently hold.

So how would having view statistics helped? Would you have curated your GitHub account differently if you knew who was visiting your profile?

Definitely possible. Could effect repos that are pinned, content of profile blurb on the left, etc. If I had access to where folks were coming from, I could gauge how visible or discoverable my profile was from other sources, my blog, etc.