now--

would you rather have 25 4 and 5 stars every year to build upon that or 15-20 3 and 2 star players every year?

which way would create  the best % of winning titles?

WL

What you are asking is two ends of an extreme, so the answer is an easy one.  Real possibilities are of course more nuanced than that.

You are trying to recruit the best team possible.  At the same time build the best staff possible and create the best culture, sports science possible for your team.  There are restraints on this- many of them bugetary but also the restrictions that are placed on recruiting by the NCAA or even the type of student-athlete you can get into the school you coach for.

I have x amount of $ to spend on recruiting, of have x amount of hours I can spend with a recruit.

Recruiting ranking can measure what we know, height, weight, athletic testing, camps, whatever. We probably know more confirmed attributes about players now more than ever due to camps and the profiliration of recruiting info everywhere.  Still 5 star guys do not always pan out- we know this.

What we can not measure often is the head and the heart.  It is cliche but true.  We do not know how a player will react to being away from home, who they will hang out with, their accountability, how they will manage their schedule, personality traits, practice habits. Coaches try to find out as much of this as they can within NCAA limits (limits that widen the margin of error).  The NFL hires ex-FBI, pyschologists, interviews, Wonderlic tests- and they still miss on guys.

In the end you have to recruit who you want at the pace you want to recruit them.  Mac is often roundly criticized in here for wanting to get guys who want to be Gators.   Mac is of course lazy for taking this approach. For not making enough offers or doing it fast enough to make everyone happy.  Although offers don't mean anything. Nevermind that he has somehow reached the appex of his profession.

Anyway back to your question, I guess I would emphasize OL, DL, QB and CB and get the best guys I could at those positions. Try to recruit in locations (footprint) that I knew I could get guys and their families to visit the campus- as much as possible-learn about them build a relationship.  I would have position attributes I want in a player-if they did not meet them I would not recruit them- no exceptions. I want speed.  I want explosive athletes- run, jump, change directions.  I want guys who produced against good high school talent- guys who did not back down on film against players who were as good or better than them.  I like most coaches would not care about the stars- we would do our own evaluations.