I think I'd prefer it if commendations had more impact, but that you weren't obligated to hand them out in every duty. Doing the crystal tower raids on the Alliance Roulette makes it almost impossible for me to identify anyone who stands out since everyone is overgeared. I usually just throw a commendation to the tank because of their horrid que times but that's really just out of pity. If I were limited to say handing out 3 commendations a day but each commendation was worth more, I could see myself rewarding more people for merit, instead of just mindlessly throwing commendations at random players because I get a reward for doing so.