Tom, The gear ratings I think are not cumulative because they refer to for example Frequency of use 1 is RTC but 5 is professional /Arborist. So there it refer to type of user not the gear itself.
Knowledge to Use it. 1 is Low knowledge and 5 is High level of Knowledge.
So I think that RTclimbers will rate the gear different than a ProClimber but both are Ok in the end. (No sure if I conveyed what I was trying to say.)
A piece of gear rated at say total 20pts from someone is not worse than one rated 30 by someone else. I think the user needs to pay attention to the writing part of the rating to get a better idea of what and how it was rated.
Other issue. Someone hates a piece of gear so they give low rating all across but someone loves the same gear and gives them \"High ratings\" for some other reason but both are fine in their rating. The writing explanation is the one I put more value than the total numeric Value.