If I recall correctly, I think around the time I started this topic I decided with my team to downplay trust levels. I never figured out an easy way to see (and show) progress people were making towards trust level 3, and it became an issue among moderators who were frustrated that it was so hard to get there. They would monitor their own progress and those of fellow moderators, and got quite competitive. Meanwhile the whole thing was pointless for them anyway because they were already moderators!
At the same time, I turned off trust level badges because they take took up so much space on user cards, because all of them are shown and crowd out were shown and crowded out more interesting ones.
edit: just remembered that @LeoMcA fixed this issue of multiple trust level badges being shown on user cards, so that reason went away. I still don’t really emphasize trust levels on my site.