Is there ever gonna be a purpose to honor or will it forever remain some pointless thing?

As it is no one even cares, it serves no purpose. Why not make it a counter to toxicity every time you get honor from someone not on your friends list one report is removed from the records. This way when you're nice your countering the reports and or false reports against you. When you're a jerk you're getting reported. Gives incentive for people who are considered toxic to work not to be.

For those with no reports give small rewards for being honored like a small bonus to ip earned. Maybe for those that continually show good behavior a skin. But not anything big enough to warrant abuse. Just enough to make people want to change and be good.

Rewarding people cause they merely haven't been punished isn't as good as rewarding people for continuously being good or for changing their attitude. This gives a way to not only make people want to work towards being positive but to make them feel like they are making progress towards those goals.

You could also give different kinds of rewards for different kinds of honor. As well as Make it so you can display each kind of ribbon.