i rather doubt that it is safe to add up the downloads of both distros to sum up that there were 3k different individuals downloading. i would expect many people downloaded or resumed download (which would supposedly count as download) multiple times for several reasons and also that those interested downloaded both versions independently. still this is quite a number indicating a high potential user interest, which actually dramatically exceeds the numbers related to, say, os4 downloads.
Sorry, I can't understand what do you mean with the passage in bold. Download number has been first calculated starting from the moved terabytes (2.77 TB), divided by the size of the package (less than 1 GB): starting and resuming a download would still totalize 1 GB of transferred data. Then it was proved by numbers of hits and visits, so I am sure at least 3,000 copies of the Live! package are now stored on the same number of different hard drives.
This doesn't mean we have 3,000 users, of course, but that there are 3,000 people interested in trying Icaros, which is more likely, and also a good result in general. Even if 1 on 5 would decide to keep AROS installed and play around with it from time to time, that would mean having 600 users. But also gaining 300 would be a great success. We're talking about a hobby, after all, and I can't be happier of the result.