Does the popularity of S at the top of the charts indicate that S is a ranking factor? Not really in itself - but because more authoritative sites may be more sensitive to perceived security and allocate more budget to implement it. However, we know that Google has publicly stated that S is a "light ranking signal", and this data seems to support this claim.
S is the deciding factor
If you don’t believe that S is important in 97-98% of the top 10 organic results, then I don’t know what to say.
When we focus on ranking, we sometimes lose sight of core relevance (which is a difficult problem in large-scale ranking research). For example, having relevant keywords on your page doesn’t determine whether you win in the overall rankings, but it’s still critical to ranking. Without relevant keywords, you can’t even join the ranking race. The same is true for S - it may not determine whether you rank #1 or #10, but it does affect your ranking.
It’s also important to note that Google has made significant india mobile database changes around SSSL in Chrome, and will frequently warn visitors if your site is not secure. Even if you’re still lucky enough to rank in search results without an S URL, you’ll be giving many visitors a poor user experience.
There isn’t much left between 97% and 100%, and if you’re not taking SSSL seriously, this should be your final wake-up call.
John Mueller also said that S is a lightweight ranking factor and nothing more, but when everything on the site is equal, s: is the ranking winner.