I think the new rank system is a bit ridiculous. The highest current rank in the game is Colonel! After the best players on the site have played hundreds or thousands of games they are still colonel and major, what is up with that? I do like that there are more ranks, no doubt. Just make them realistically attainable. There are now three ranks at the top that nobody has, come on.
I think it should be more like the ranks in the U.S. Military. There are 9 pay grades (E1-E9) for the Enlisted and the Non-comissioned Officers (NCOs). Some services also have a few ranks for Warrant Officers, mainly helicopter pilots and such. Then there are the ten main pay grades (O1-O10) for Comissioned Officers. Both enlisted and officer ranks are bottom heavy, with the highest in both sections, E9 and O10, being the fewest in number of people with that rank. There is also another rank of officer that currently is unheld, the 5 star general/fleet admiral, pay grade O11, granted in wartime only and even then very rarely. The last I know of were General Eisenhower, who later became Presient, and General Omar Bradley.
Generally most people confuse rank with pay grade, because usually you advance a pay grade whenever you advance in rank. But some pay grades have multiple ranks within them, even though they are paid the same, and one rank name (an Air Force First Sergeant,) can span multiple pay grades. It's not really that confusing, go to the following link if you want to learn more
http://www.military-quotes.com/military-rank.htm
By the way, I only have 25 finished games. I've never played with, and don't even know any of the guys/gals at the top, so I don't have a dog in this fight.
I've gone to long, my main thing is that the top few players should be at least be generals, like they were before this new system of ranking. Every real army needs a general.