- Many open source projects don't get any traction and die.
- Some open source projects get traction and get used a lot.
- Many of them keep growing and accepting PRs until they're bloated and die.
- Some of them are marked finished and don't have activity for years.
When searching a project, I always pick the latter ones. They're battle tested and I trust the author that he isn't going to break stuff by adding nonsense methods for a small minority because the owner didn't dare say no.
Repositories with a working solution for a clear goal that haven't had commits in years aren't dead. They're finished. And I'd trust them more than anything.