Right up to the moment your funding agency calls you out during DD and then you are in deep trouble. Would not recommend.
Why does it matter if GH stars can be gamed or not, could you tell me what it measures?
One word. Bangladesh.
That made me curious: never thought there was a real market but people really seem to pay 1$ per star. Now I have to only trick someone into giving me money for that.
Would be a fun project btw to detect gh not account and projects that obviously paid to get stars.
If I paid one cent for stars, I would close the project.