In the early days of the repository, everyone could like a mod within the repository akin to liking posts on the forums. That feature has since been restricted to only staff members, probably to prevent spam and abuse. Similarly, there used to be profile posts and forum groups before both were pulled. If you weren't part of the forums since the early days, then you might not be aware of such features all users once had.
Oh sh*t I remember forum groups! I think I was in a fairly large group called 'British BeamNG Players' or something like that. They were all pretty dead though, so I get why they were removed.
I remember that one group where some dude was taking other people's meshslaps and fixing the biggest issues for them without them even knowing about it and then releasing that in the group lol, then he was banned but idk if it was related to this (probably yes)