Yes, I definitely agree that transparency and clarity will always be best regardless. Probably the best thing for it is for it just to be clarified based on what's happening. For example, if it's something like the bombing where it's sort of an information free-for-all and information hasn't necessarily come down from above to high ranking characters, that can be clarified on the prompt itself so no one is surprised that their faction rank isn't necessarily yielding information?

I also just want to toss out the suggestion of using reward points to buy in-game influence beyond the star ranks. Not only would it be a real, tangible way to say "hey look, my character has this much!" but in addition to star ranks it can be another way for a character to gain a foothold in the setting and use up a lot of those extra points a lot of us are sitting on and I think it could be really fun!