Those are all qualities that you’re painting in a negative light.

You may not think Facebook deserves credit for its network effects, but a lot of people would disagree.

So you’re arguing that popularity is a proxy for quality? So astrology is correct? There’s endless examples of popular things that are nonsense.

Of course the opposite is not true. Things are not bad because they are popular. I just don’t think there is any inherent correlation at all. Popularity generally measures memetic power and that’s it. Cold viruses are also popular.

You're conflating "quality" for correctness, which is not what I said.

Yes, astrology being popular means it is high quality entertainment value.

Cold viruses being popular means they are high quality reproducers.

And for Facebook, whose primary value is from network effects, popularity indeed means it is a high quality social network.