Reflections Lost on a Dark Road/Headscratchers

If the aliens can create "Double A" psychics, why are they all wandering around free-range? Why are these city-busting psychics not deployed as Trenchards? I know X-Com doesn't care because they're basically Nazis with justification, but the authors need to start waving their hands really fast. It started out as a reason for Let's You and Him Fight (and to prove that Sociopathic Soldiers with Supernatural Martial Arts are superior combatants to Thou Shalt Not Kill superheroes), but it never quit bothering me.
 * Until recently, Ethereals and Sectoids were quite capable of fulfilling the needs of the Mind for psychics; besides, if they really want to do mass destruction, all they really need to do is start bombarding the place with UFO-mounted plasma cannons.

In the military, the chain of command is a big deal. Everybody needs to know where exactly they fit in it; who their boss is, who becomes the boss when the boss is out of commission, and who becomes boss when the backup goes down until you get to the last guy standing. And yet when DT Ryouga asks if he should appoint somebody to be his second in the newly formed Yankee squad... he's told to not bother.

Why the heck was RtC Ryouga brevetted two ranks for the Pathfinder mission? There doesn't seem to have been any need for any temporary rank increase at all; it's not exactly uncommon for people of the same rank to have one of them in charge of a particular mission. And even if was considered 'necessary' for Ryouga to outrank Ranma, why make Ryouga a major instead of a captain? The only explanation that comes to mind is that if Yankee had been dissolved, its place on board Pathfinder would have been filled with a group including one of Seiran's captains... but with RtC Ryouga still in command for some strange reason.