I feel like if we need people to earn the mentor status and represent people who are good mentors or are helpful then the commendation system is not fit for purpose. Comms are awarded for a whole plethora of and completely arbitrary reasons.

A "mentor recommendation" system could be better, people can recommend people for mentor status at the end of an instance. No rewards or carrots on a stick for people to pick somebody to recommend at the end, but if they found someone helpful they may choose to recommend them.

After a certain number of recommendations then you get awarded with the status.

It's not flawless, but I think it is more reliable than basing it around comms. I used to have the mentor status, but when I realised its meaningless, also the novice network has always been pretty toxic when I've been in there and instead just help people when they need it.