ES - You'll need to ask that question of several long-dead senior officers and one deceased Head of the Air Historical Branch... That's how it was interpreted, that's all I'm saying - my attempt at illustrating the idea of there being some special distinction by applying something tangible to illustrate it when the idea appears intangible may not have helped...
It's always been the case when it comes to cutting back on squadron numbers that 617 and 120 have been preserved (as long as there is an aircraft type for them to move on to, of course).120 were junior when the Shackleton was retired and replaced by a smaller number of Nimrod units, but the documentation clearly shows that the early standard award gave special status and the squadron reformed on Nimrods at the expense of (IIRC) 204 Squadron which came higher in the list of seniority than 120; 83 went instead of 617 when the Vulcan force was cut back in the late '60s, and there was, from what I can ascertain, some discussion of ensuring that 617 re-equipped with the Tornado rather than disbanding when the Vulcan was retired, again on the basis of the early standard award.