EDIT: Accidentally duplicated post. Please see https://startrek.website/post/25896182 for all responses and put future responses there. Also, I have more theorizing there.
EDIT: Accidentally duplicated post. Please see https://startrek.website/post/25896182 for all responses and put future responses there. Also, I have more theorizing there.
This one is a bit of a copout, because Kim’s official role as the ship’s operations officer would absolutely have been appropriate for a higher ranking officer. It’s the same job Data held as a Lieutenant Commander on the Enterprise; if anything, the strange bit is that it was given to a green ensign in the first place.
Ultimately, the real explanation is a much sillier bit of bad writing. According to Garret Wang, quoted here:
Why it was important that “somebody’s gotta be the ensign” is a mystery to me.
Kinda surprised they hadn’t made Naomi Wildman an ensign by the end of their run.