I think the badges are unattractive clutter that adds almost nothing to the user experience. I think it safe to assume that many contributors here have flown a lot, stayed in lots of hotels and visited lots of countries, and I (personally) really don't need to know the details.

I accept that the badges are here to stay, but it would be nice if the empty placeholders could be the same colour as the background - i.e., invisible - rather than grey. I'm never going to select badges to appear in my profile, so I am stuck forever more with a row of empty, grey hexagons beneath my name. And that appears as clutter on everyone's screen.