I thought that they should give you some commendations based off your prior work, like 1 commendation for every other level you reached with that faction. So if you were rank 10 vanguard, you get 5 commendations. Maybe that's too many and would make the entire point of commendations irrelevant; maybe it wouldn't. I don't know. In the end just seems like another currency that is needed to make you slow down a bit.