[Deaths]

I think the popularity of a hack is count on posts in support threads and not by clicking on an "Install" button.

No, that shows the following;
The age of the thread; the older the thread, the more replies
The bugs in the hack; If the hack is one big bughole, loads of people are going to reply to say so.

The number of installs shows if a hack is liked or not. If I like a hack, and think its a good one, I click install, even though I might not use it, my click might just get that hack into the HOTM.

The install button now isn't that much of a measure, but when you would just provide direct links to the downloads, 3/4th of the German speaking community wouldn't know of the install button's existance, so they won't click it.

If that happens, you might aswell just remove the install button, as there will be way more actuall installations rather than install clicks.