There are too many JS frameworks/platforms/libraries to keep up with. I can't spend my time investigating them all. I've heard of Meteor several times but in my mind it was associated with (a) real-time apps, and (b) not free. I'm guessing that was because it is the free alternative to a paid thing? Anyway, that's what stuck in my head so I've ignored this one.

Is looking at GitHub stars a recommended way to find the best frameworks? Or what would you suggest for that?

I recently started looking at Nodal since it was mentioned here on HN a couple weeks ago. It looks pretty cool at first glance but I haven't tried building anything with it yet. (I don't have infinite time.)

I remember when there was Prototype.js vs jQuery vs Yahoo's library vs MooTools vs fill-in-the-blank. I only switched to jQuery when virtually everyone else had. Until then I stuck with Prototype because its the one I already knew (because I tried it first), even though I had played with jQuery a little bit.

So, again I say there are just too many frameworks to keep up with. (And ask if anyone has a good site / method for dealing with this.)