ah...is that why they still have a highest rated in the trends? The inspectors get to rate files?
A long time ago they said that search ranking would no longer be affected by ratings made by ordinary members, but the inspectors' ratings would still be used to promote files in the search.
Some years ago there were "rating rings" which flooded each other's files with 5* ratings, pushing them well up the search and probably making a lot of money for those involved, particularly as sales created by those ratings would reinforce the files' high search ranking. They cracked down on it back in maybe 2005 or 2006 but I am sure the payoff from the scam continued to be significant for years.