I feel the commendation system is completely prone to bias, as players who are much more involved in the main story such as old characters or lorekeepers will definitely pick their closest to partake in such storylines / events. This will cause only those privileged players to be on the spotlight and seen by writing-focused players, which will definitely adhere to the commendation system as fighting / raids is not where they shine.
There is a conflict of interests, and having this bias is not much different than the current problem we have with admin votes for spells.
Which is what we're trying to deviate from.
This bias is not something good, as admins are not omniscient to know everything that's happening will all characters.
They will have more information about characters they play with.
You see it as good competition, while some players can't even begin to participate in that competition.
In my opinion, from the latest suggestion, I'd just remove this Havoc part and rethink interaction with Commendations.
Or even, just follow a product design approach and rework the system without both of these, to see how it performs first before a complete overhaul.
There is a conflict of interests, and having this bias is not much different than the current problem we have with admin votes for spells.
Which is what we're trying to deviate from.
This bias is not something good, as admins are not omniscient to know everything that's happening will all characters.
They will have more information about characters they play with.
You see it as good competition, while some players can't even begin to participate in that competition.
In my opinion, from the latest suggestion, I'd just remove this Havoc part and rethink interaction with Commendations.
Or even, just follow a product design approach and rework the system without both of these, to see how it performs first before a complete overhaul.