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1) Rating System
One thing that bothers me the most is the rating system...
Terrain??Units? SOUND???? No one on b.net cares about those. And I don't even know what you mean by "Units".... As in are the units balanced? or are their unit names cool and colored with stacked text?
Following Gametrailer's rating methods, Terrain and Sound both fall under the "PRESENTATION" or "PROFESSIONALISM" of the map. Presentation would also cover things such as the atmosphere, unit names, map names, and many sorts of things. This is a more correct rating of a map.
"GAMEPLAY" is also another important aspect. While you may think gameplay falls under Replay Value, it doesn't. Take RUSH episode 1, or ANY RPG's.. They may all have great Gameplay, with interesting spells, stories, and etc. But to be honest, once you've finished them, there's no reason to play it again.
"CREATIVITY/ORIGINALITY" may also be included, but not as important as the first two. This is what draws new people in. Out of All the Defense maps that are on this site, why is this map so special? Well, because this map has a REALLY ORIGINAL way of doing things. And voila, instant pwnage map.
"REPLAY VALUE" - Good call by you. No comment other than to say that this is also very important. A map (like for example Cat and Mouse) can be easy as heck to make, with no professionalism, or originality. But you just can't stop playing it.. LOL
So please consider changing ur rating system....
2) Popularity of Maps
I know you've done a ton of algorithms to figure out a way to best represent popular maps. But it is counter-intuitive. First of all, the most popular maps in this website will be the maps that are the most frequently downloaded. On battle.net, it is the map that is most frequently played that becomes popular. If I wanted my map to be popular, I can simply download it many times to pump its popularity.
Also, there are only a handful of people on this site that actually participate and contribute. The others just download and/or upload their own maps. Because of this, the ratings/downloads are generally biased. The ratings is not a big problem, as I think it doesn't affect the ranking of a map, but the downloads sure do.
Think of it this way, if a map is very popular on B.net, I'd probably be able to find it and DL it on B.net instead of googling it, coming here, and downloading it here. Although downloads do represent a map's popularity to some extent, it is definitely not the best.
So in this case, I'd offer a "Favorites" system. Every person should be able to have limited/unlimited "Favorite" tags that they can put on their "Favorite" maps. Since you really can't do an algorithm out of how many times the map's actually played, it is best to have the users contribute. If one has limited "Favorite" tags (maybe 1 per level, starting with 5), the user will have to pick his/her absolute favorite maps. This would also give incentive for the users to personalized their accounts. Maybe ask them why they think it's their favorite map. Also, others can then view the maps he/she likes the best, and move on from there.
The only problem I see with this system is that the user will probably "favorite" his/her own maps. Which should be shunned somehow :P.
Anyway, I know you've done a lot, and adding another system will probably make you go bonkers, but I really do feel the current system doesn't work very well. The "Favorite" system is a cleaner, more discrete way of rating the popularity of a map, but it is still flawed. With the same problem as the downloads/ratings, there are only handfuls of people currently that would use the "favorite" tags if this were to be implemented. And if this happens, the same pattern of problems will arise again, as maps liked by that handful of ppl will eventually be highly ranked.