https://www.ruby-toolbox.com/ is one way the Ruby community solves this. I'm not a huge fan of their font choices, but the interface provides an easy way to see which gems in a given category are the most popular or most active.

For example, if we were looking for an asset management package like the OP, we would quickly see that Jammit is the most widely used: https://www.ruby-toolbox.com/categories/Asset_Management