Well, this thread is certainly frustrating to read all 12 pages of. Looks like the DWO community hasn't aged well since I last was here. Its also a bit discouraging that such a game-suffocating bug has not been resolved yet. I'm sure Aeria isn't entirely to blame, but having to support as many games as they are and needing to get in touch with KOEI just for a bug fix probably doesn't help. Regardless, it is what it is and I hope the situation is resolved soon.
I do have one possible suggestion, though I haven't had the time to verify if this still works. I recall that
if you hit S Rank in your first mission you are automatically promoted to Guard, which in theory would circumvent the instructor bug. Is this still true, or was this changed at some point? A possible solution could be to encourage duckies to remake their character and try to place S rank again. While this could be potentially (and understandably) frustrating for some, positive reinforcement/making friends right away could help new players through this tough time.
If this has been suggested in the past, I apologize. I did read all 12 pages of this thread, but started paying far less attention when the bickering came to a head.
Edit: I am attaching a video of one such player S-ranking the Tutorial Mission in case any new player sees this and would like to see how it's done first-hand.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LaqQ1fx8GNw