A valid concern indeed. However, such a council should only be made of the most senior sensei in the system. If all they have are a bunch of 5th dan holders as the senior most people, then that's what it will have to be.
Despite this, though, someone would have to stand out amongst the entire group of peers. While we like to say that all men are created equally, this is simply not the case, and someone would have to step up and claim the highest position in a system. For the most part, a group of 5th dan holders will know who the best is amongst their circle, and who is most likely to be the best leader amongst them (the two are not necessarily the same thing).
If a system is to survive, then they should know that there should only be one head chef guiding the cooks, else the broth gets spoiled. Maybe an assistant chef here and there, but only one chef leads it.
Right, see, that's the thing. Maybe they think one person really stands out, but by someone else's standards, he is pretty mediocre. So who gets to make that decision and judgement? It's easy for the Club to just start elevating everyone as a matter of habit and policy, and that's the danger. And does this Club suddenly become a formal organization, with leaders and followers, or just a loose association of friends? That can have an impact on what the rank means as well.
I'll give another example. In the capoeira world back in the 1960s, a group was formed in Rio de Janeiro, known as Senzala Group. It started out as a small group of guys who would gather together to train and grow. Most of these guys didn't have a lot of training, but they had tremendous passion for the art, and they trained really hard. Gradually, they were joined by others who had some more training, and they were able to grow together, as newcomers would share what they knew. Some of these people had studied under some of the famous Mestres of the time, but many of them really had a small amount of training. This group grew in size and in talent, and eventually became a very influential group in the Rio capoeira scene. Eventually they established their own ranking system and promoted their own members to Mestre. The group survived for a long time, and perhaps even still survives today, but it also underwent some splintering as some key members split off and went their own ways. Some of these people are currently the movers and shakers in the capoeira world today. So here is an example of a group with limited training who went on to distinguish themselves, and the rank they bestowed upon their own members had merit. And I would say that the early members of Senzala, who had limited training, were not at the equivalent of 5th dan. Rather, they were probably at the capoeira equivalent of brown belts and lower. They had maybe a sporatic couple years of training at most, with a knowledgeable teacher, and that was it.
But there are others who were not part of the Senzala group who criticize their training methods as having lost much of the traditional cultural aspects of the art. While the Senzala group raised the art to a higher technical level, they feel that much of the cultural uniqueness that made Capoeria so unusual and deep in its own way, was lost by Senzala.
Within their own group, the Senzala members were very good and their rank meant something. And they could play very successfully against others from different groups. But outside their group, there were peceived shortcomings in their overall approach to capoeira. Raising the technical level, at the price of losing some of the intangible elements of the art. So where does rank have meaning, and where does this meaning end?
So I'm just giving this as an example, food for thought. Not sure what I am trying to claim or suggest, just giving another scenario to compare and ponder.
