This is actually a bit of a problem. Even with many things available out there, some things are more useable than others, and it takes quite a bit of digging to figure out which packages you want to install.
I think people who write up their experiences in emacs and give suggestions about which packages are genuinely useful, and which alternatives aren't, are being really helpful.
Thanks. I didn't know MELPA had download counts, now I do. But there is nothing in `list-packages' that hints at this, really, it's just a list of packages.
It's kinda hard to miss it.
The person who wrote the article managed this easily enough. Emacs packages also interact with each other (e.g., completion minor modes and language major modes, things like flycheck). I still think there's a fair amount of uncertainty about what packages one should install, and that projects like https://github.com/bbatsov/prelude are really helpful in this regard.
Since it's a single data point I think it really says more about the author of the article than about Emacs...