2 non-white guys are arrested on sight, while their attractive white woman friend is helped by some rich guy and starts going to fancy parties...yeah that tracks
I could be mistaken but in the beginning of the show didn't Janeway say that promotions are indefinitely suspended? They don't know how long they'll be out there, and unfortunately there will always be ensign work
Well it's the far flung future where they can have fully productive meetings that end in 3 minutes with the problem solved...so somewhere along the lines they could probably be able to tell kids don't push this button and fully expect those kids to not push that button 47 times per day
He was awake because the Paxans couldn't incapacitate them. He was ordered to never ever reveal what happened