I bet the majority of views are on the articles, and since article views don't exist or are separate from the forum thread views, thats where that contrast comes from maybe??
Although its a good idea to remove them.. I personally think they're useful to gauge whether or not anyone has seen my thread and thus possibly replied to it and helped further it
There are many forums without view counts and its easy to tell if they're deserted, too. Maybe the reply counts are the ones that do it the most, not sure, really. I don't really think I've seen a forum that doesn't immediately feel dead at a first glance.. Maybe some have the created at date with a thread that when you click on it has like 3 replies, so you subconsciously assume most threads are dead to begin with, even the newer ones..
Would removing all forms of recency and statistics rly help the site? i am retarded btw