Yeah, those insignia don't do anything save prevent the guy from running back to his corpse to rez. Also, how long have you been playing? 'Cause the game's been out for years, the battleground system is officially ancient, and even arenas are getting on in age by now, so if you're a longtime player I'd wonder how the hell you managed to avoid PVP this long. If, on the other hand, you're relatively new, I suppose I can kind of see it.
Either way, get used to it. It's the only thing to do at 70 if you're not a raider, and raiding will leave you a broken, bitter husk of a man that smokes too much and hates everything associated with WoW.
*hangs head in shame*
Ive been playing for years, its just that I never got into PvP. Now Im almost forced into it so I can get the pimp gear. Dont do much raiding either as my guild is just WAY too serious about it. Must have Vent (I dont due to wonky firewall problem), must "sign up" for the raid at the guild website, etc...blergh.
So, since you seem to know about it, whats the difference between the battlegrounds and the arena? Just the available loot rewards? Also, I saw this phat mage staff in the Hall of Legends, that requires 37k+ honor and what looked like three different kinds of tokens (30 each), whats the fastest way to get that, lol.