These decisions are usually made by someone who is in a minority but in a position of influence and have the drive to push the barrow. A couple of examples:
RAN FAA aircrew wings - in the seventies "someone" decided that it would be nice to have a set of "gold" metal wings to pin on summer rig (prior to this wings or decorations were not worn on summer working rig). Some ****** decided that these metal wings would essentially have "two" wings for all three specialties (pilot, observer, aircrewman) with minor differences to the centre motif to distinguish, at a very close up glance, who was who.
All were immediately up in arms - off the sleeve - obs lost their beloved "squashed" butterfly - the actual metal wings were and still are crap (commonly found in Kellog Corn Flake packets - my junior TAA wings were better) when compared to, say USN, RAAF, AAAC.
Related subject - Oz gets rid of Imperial decorations and introduces egalitarian system - thinking that troops would no longer feel that they belonged to an under class - wrong! - the diggers of all three services were justifiably proud of their DSM, MM, DFM because, unless they were originally lower deck, an officer could not be awarded them.
Might seem like a small point and normally might be except that the same wankers are not doing a good job of overall defence force management.
GAGS
E86