Does everyone need something "shiny" to make themselves stick out from other branches/services?

At the end of the day. We're all on the same team.

Yes. Everyone wants to be recognized as someone who is unique and special and even more so within the ranks of military branches. Who hasn't seen someone in the uniform of a specialized branch and ask themselves if they have what it takes to cut it? To have the pride of that accomplishment? If you think about it from a recruitment standpoint it makes more sense to have volunteers wanting to serve than picking from the ranks and forcing them to serve. To me it comes down to inspire the go-getters or crack the whip on forced labor. Which would you want to take into combat and have your back, or want to shoot you in it?

They do in NK.

I always preferred NAP when I was in an airborne unit. My buddies would call me leg but I would point out that by the time they got done falling out of the plane they had to leg it through the woods for 20 miles. I would go meet them in my truck.

I knew I saved this pic for a reason lol.
It is nice to have something to show off that you worked hard to get. But at the same time, there is a lot of 'bling' in the military that you get simply because you were in a specific place or with a unit and didn't really have to work for.

I have two shadow boxes hanging om my wall. One hold mt the medals I earned, my chevrons that I wore when I retired, my qualification badges, my lapel brass and my first over seas combat patch. The other hold all the distinguished unit insignia (crest) and each unit patch I wore , while i Was in the Army. What does the do. It tell my history of what I did and was in the ARMY.

Each branch of our forces have different medals and awards. There is one thing that every one of has, that when we bleed, we all bleed red.

the only time that we'd wear anything shining would be on our dress blues, other then that our daily uniforms were utility greens and our hat and collar devices were painted black showing what rank I was PO1, PO2, or PO3.

Each branch has its own way of using carrots to motivate its members to attain the highest level of performance possible. Some things in one branch may seem childish to those in another branch, but when we realize the mission of each branch is different then the need for those enticements and rewards becomes clearer. Even within each branch there are those who don't see the need for the "in-house" games of musical chairs, so they don't participate. Bottom-line, are they necessary? Yes, because being in the line of work we are where at any moment our lives are on the line we need as much competition and recognition as we can get to make the stress "fun" (if that makes sense).

In the Corps, we don't waste our time and money on the numerous decorations the Army puts on their uniforms, and don't even wear a name tag with our service/dress uniforms. All we have are ribbons/medals, and even those are few unless you've been on multiple deployments. We call the Army service alphas (Class As?) Christmas trees because of all of that stuff you guys have on them. Haha

An older photo, for example.