I’ve always thought the ‘mark someone 3* so they can’t IB’ only applied to ME not to other hosts.
So, I give 3* and they can’t come back to my place but they’re welcome to go elsewhere.
And, yes, I think the “recommended by other hosts” just means that they have ONE thumbs up on their account (stars could be terrible, text could be terrible and they could have other thumbs down, so long as that ONE thumbs up is there).
that “recommended by other hosts” likely isn’t the gold star some hosts think