For under Black belts rank is a way to keep track of progress that help instructors and helps the students with motivation.
A different story for instructors. Rank should be a personal motivation, no need to feed our egos and be used to diminish anyone’s accomplishments.
The real rank for Black Belts is time involved, goals achieved, improvements, giving back to the people and try somehow to make the world a better place.
The time for me as a Black Belts to expect anyone’s approval is way past and all it matters now is how far I can guide the students in their self development.
Is it not what we became instructors for?