Don't get a false sense of security from the ratings of any download site. And don't get the idea that the bigger more popular ones with a not so stellar rating are inserting malware into known good software (a few people were afraid to download my software from Brothersoft based on a bad rating on the site for malware, thinking it meant that Brothersoft was deliberately infecting all the software they listed with crap, when that just wasn't true.)
There are very few PAD driven download sites on the internet that are 100% free of malware and spyware. Just like any other developers, malware/spyware makers submit PAD files to download sites and they get automatically added to the databases. Very few download sites go through the trouble of analyzing the software they list. I do not place any sort of trust in any of the download sites. I always research everything before downloading and scan it once it is downloaded, no matter what site it comes from.
Just do your homework for each app you are considering and you should be ok.