Ormeside - those 'awful star badges' you refer to really must have been unpopular because very few appear to have survived. In 30 odd years of dealing in militaria I only ever saw one set of them, at a fair in Gloucester about 20 years ago. I think over £100 was being asked for them which seemed a lot to me at the time, but if I had bought them I would be on a handsome profit now - at auction, collectors of RAF insignia would be fighting over them!
As you say the system was unpopular and it was abandoned in 1950. The only survival of the system was the rank of master pilot (or navigator etc) which was the new name for warrant officer aircrew, which still survives among certain aircrew categories. Prior to 1946 they were simply known as Warrant Officer.
I once had a GSM for Palestine 1945 - 48 named to an S2 RAF, which puzzled me until I realised that the chap had been a signaller 2 which I think was equivalent to sergeant.