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It's not users, it's the platform itself. AirBnB and other companies like Uber and Lyft will significantly deprioritize you if your average rating isn't very close to 5 stars. Rating your Uber driver 3 stars can significantly affect how many fares they're offered and therefore how much money they can make.

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But if users don't care, why do platforms care? Maybe it's actually a reliable signal?

Obviously it's also more reliable in the context of other evaluations by the same reviewer which the platform has easy access to, i.e. if someone always gives 5 stars, then a 4 star review from him is much worse than one from someone who never gives 5 stars.

Users caring might mean that a user is 15% more likely to select a 5 star host over a 4.5 star host, not that the user will say a 5 star rating is a top concern.

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