This review asks why Stellar has not reached the top tier of Hexo themes. The 2026-08-14 snapshot gives a mixed answer: Stellar ranks ninth in stars, but third in monthly npm downloads; its star growth slowed after a strong 2024, yet its recent annual growth is still ahead of several peers. The product explanation completes the picture: Hexo’s mainstream mental model is still a lightweight blog, while Stellar presents a blog, knowledge base, topic system, and notebook system as one content platform.