There’s much to absorb in this topic and its relations so forgive me if I overlook something.
If the outcome will be a new trust level, then will it appear alongside the four at e.g. Discourse Meta where everyone in a community can see who has reached the new level, and can see why it was reached?
Imagine a community where a handful of members, below a trust level, provide useful and/or accurate content that either:
- can not be judged automatically (by the system) for stats; or
- is naturally thankless.
The human touch – an expression of gratitude for contributions that slip through the net – is ideal.
However: if that expression is to be badged – at /badges – I’m not (yet) convinced that publicity/badging will be ideal. If there’s public reward to most of the handful, whilst overlooking one or two individuals, there’s the potential to alienate the few who are (for whatever reason) overlooked.
Personally, I’d send an occasional private message to thank any person who is identifiably helfpul. YMMV.