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I think it's also worth mentioning that choosing to use third party code is an opportunity for you to give back to the community.

Most of the PRs on the projects I follow come from people that are using the code in their own applications. They'll find a small problem and push a fix for everyone's benefit, instead of leaving it up to the core maintainers.

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Absolutely, this is why popularity of the project matters, as it means it is more likely to be tested and actively maintained. And as a good citizen you should participate!

Also: if you find you need to write this non-core functionality in-house you could consider open sourcing it yourself. If you're right that this is a need not filled by existing libraries you might just find a community grows around your version to help you maintain it.

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