The five-stars are usually used as an ordinal scale (rank matters but nothing else makes sense), but when the results are interpreted, they are read as an interval scale (item A ( ) + item B ( ) == item C ( )).This is usually difficult to get across in a discussion, because you have to throw nerd-talk at them, and when they ignore that and continue doing meaningless comparisons you have no means by which to reel them back in.
We are apparently not speaking of the same thing...
Throw some nerd-talk at me...
(But don't tell my wife.)