Best way to get module and commit meta data from drupal.org This is a broader question, but related to: get-more-drupal-org-project-usage-information

Goal: I'd like to get richer stats about modules.

Choosing a module has become a very complicated process.  Things like recent commits, usage growth/decline, number of maintainers, etc. all factor in but drupal.org has (frankly) lousy tools for finding modules and http://drupalmodules.com/ is basically abandoned.

Current Approach: Screen-scrape limited available stats like https://www.drupal.org/project/usage

I've been grabbing some stats to help me make an informed decision but scraping seems archaic given the openness of drupal. 

Ideal Approach: Use published drupal.org API to query in JSON

Does such a thing exist to harvest module info or is it necessary to scrape?  Even better would be to create a database or spreadsheet.

I have seen a thread discussing this, but looking for an implementation or concrete plan to implement.

IMO there is a desperate need to improve module transparency and data to help system builders better select appropriate modules.
It took me a while to find but this is what I was looking for:

https://www.drupal.org/api


  The following node types currently exist on drupal.org:
  
  book book_listing casestudy changenotice forum image organization
  packaging_whitelist page project_issue project_core
  project_distribution project_drupalorg project_module project_release
  project_theme project_theme_engine project_translation story Of
  particular interest is interacting with the issue queues. Some of the
  field values returned by the api are the numeric representations in
  the database. The following mappings are used for some key fields on
  project_issue nodes:
  
  field_issue_priority
  
  400,"Critical” 300,"Major” 200,"Normal” 100,"Minor" field_issue_status
  
  1,active 2,fixed 3,closed (duplicate) 4,postponed 5,closed (won't fix)
  6,closed (works as designed) 7,closed (fixed) 8,needs review 13,needs
  work 14,reviewed &amp; tested by the community 15,patch (to be ported)
  16,postponed (maintainer needs more info) 18,closed (cannot reproduce)
  field_issue_category
  
  1,'Bug report' 2,'Task' 3,'Feature request' 4,'Support request'
  
  Available Taxonomy Vocabularies
  
  1,Forums 2,Screenshots 3,Module categories 5,Drupal version 6,Core
  compatibility 7,Release type 9,Issue tags 31,Page status 34,Front page
  news 38,Audience 44,Maintenance status 46,Development status
  48,Services 50,Sectors 52,Locations 54,Keywords 56,Level 58,License
  60,Book availability 62,Book format