First-order effects

• Lyft drivers immediately benefit twice over: default tipping should lift per-ride earnings, and the December default five-star rating shields drivers whose passengers simply don't rate them from seeing their averages dragged down.
• Riders who skip rating lose de facto influence — silence now counts as praise rather than being ignored.

Second-order effects

• Uber faces renewed pressure to match on driver-facing defaults, extending the tit-for-tat that began when it added tipping and other earnings features in 2017; its later move to show riders their own rating breakdowns (ratings transparency) suggests it still treats ratings as a serious signal, which default fives would dilute if copied.
• As default fives inflate Lyft's rating pool, low ratings become more diagnostic — a sub-five average increasingly flags genuinely poor behavior rather than apathetic passengers, changing how both platforms can act on the data.

Third-order effects

• If defaults keep tilting toward drivers — tipping by default, five stars by default, and later Lyft letting riders favorite drivers for priority dispatch (favorites and blocking) — ride-hail labor management shifts from punitive rating enforcement toward retention mechanics, with ratings evolving from a disciplinary tool into a marketing asset.
• The pattern points to driver supply, not rider price, becoming the axis on which the two platforms differentiate, since tips and goodwill are cheaper concessions than base-fare increases.