Yeah, so you get more medals from realmmates. That's who you know, and who knows you. Again, the only "bonus" would be a high listing on the join realm pages. Which helps lure people to your realm.
If people are trying to "game" the system for the sole purpose of getting more people to join the realm, that would make me think they'd put some effort into retaining those people.
And...This is...A bad thing?
Eh... no. Giving medals is a mere click, has nothing to do with retention. Since receiving medals means you can give more medals, it would just mean that people would hoard less and give less medals to outsides in order to dump all medals within the realm, therefore allowing more medals to be given in return.
It'd be like capitalism. You need medals to make medals. And if there's a distinctive advantage to having a lot of medals, such as realm-wide notoriety, then there's be much more incentive to game such a light-weight tool.
Everyone wants more estate-fodder, but not everyone has the time or will to do anything about retention.
