I could be viewing this wrong, but the way many people see the "honorable" members are people who are ex-mods/admins that should be respected. If this is the case, then I don't think the group is really necessary. First of all, it seems that those who desire the purple names just want some kind of sense of authority. I can't exactly blame them for wanting that, but it's not something that should be made into a huge fuss. Second of all, you shouldn't need a purple name in order to be respected, and you shouldn't need a purple name in order to have more of a say in anything. People can tell the difference between an experienced, well-known user than a new user who doesn't know anything. You don't need a purple name to justify that.

But then again, I don't know much about the Honorable Group, so I guess I could be misunderstanding quite a few things.