Are Accolades the ONLY Badges that help?

Hey there, today I got my Portal Jockey and Freedom Phalanx badges for the FIRST time (yaaay), and actually realized I don't know alot about badges at all, so I had some questions:

First off, and most importantly in my opinion, are accolades the ONLY badges that award bonuses? Like I understand that each of the accolades has a unique power they give you, but are there any other badges like this outside of the accolades category?
And if not, no offense to any of you, but what really is the point of obtaining badges? I mean this in the most literal way possible, like is it just a show-off kind of achievement type thing, or are there any rewards for it? (Asides from bragging rights...)
Thanks a bunch you guys, just trying to understand the badge system a little better, that's all.

Accolades and day jobs give powers but not even all accolades give powers just some.

Every badge gives at least the simplest in-game reward, the ability to use the badge name as a title. As mentioned, many Accolades and all Day Job badges grant a bonus power, some of the other Accolades give unlockable costume pieces for use on that character, as do a few other badges. Some of the Event badges also grant a temporary bonus power, like the ones for doing the Winter Event Mission. All exploration badges grant xp for finding them for anyone level 2-49. Gladiator badges grant the use of more mobs as gladiators for those matches in the arena. A number of the Invention and Market badges grant increases in inventory for things, and all of the ones for memorizing recipes give a discount for crafting those recipes into enhancements. Supergroup badges all unlock various base items for your base.

None of the others give a tangible reward, save for Veteran badges, and you don't really earn those through game activity. As for why you get the ones that don't give a bonus, just to do it, or to have a memento of something that you did in the game, or because you like to collect things. Honestly, it's the same as asking why someone writes a description for their character, or takes time to design a unique costume, or roleplays. None of these things give you any statistical bonus, they're just fun for those that choose to do them. Same thing with collecting badges for those of us that like to do that.

Some badges also unlock costume pieces or new weapon costumizations.
And there's a few emotes that are unlocked via badges.

Mmmm, okay, thanks!
I'm very intruiged by the badges that apparently unlock costume pieces and e-motes, could somebody possibly provide a list of such badges? I'm in love with emotes, and it'd be really cool to get some free costume pieces as well. Thanks!

This is rather off the top of my head, so there may be omissions.

Badges That "Do Something" are typically Accolades and grant a power. Not all accolades do so, but most do. There are exception to this though:

All Day Job badges offer some temp power or bonus, but have to be charged by logging off in the Day Job location, which is what actually grants the power/bonus with the badges making the power/bonus more powerful.

Rescuer gives access to Mr Yen's Store in Faultline.
Trusted With The Secret grants the Oro Portal Power.
Midnight Squad gives access to the Midnighter's Club (and, by proxy, Chimora).
Burkholder's Bane gives access to the dice7 emote.
A Wentworths badge (I can't remember which off the top of my head) gives a bonus (again, can't remember if it's Recipe Slots, Auction Slots or Salvage Space)
Some Crafting badges give more Recipe/Salvage space.
Member of Vanguard grants the abilit to collect Vangard Merits.

On the Red Side, some badges unlock special contacts.
On Both sides, some badges unlock weapons with which you can customise your weapon using characters.

So, yeah, a number of badges, not just accolades, give a bonus, benefit or area access. Beyond that, they can be a fun little item to collect if you're an "explorer" personality.

I like using the P-wiki's page for how to gain badges that have effects (there's also a page for villie badges).

Ahh, thanks much for the Wiki page, that's exactly what I was looking for. But it seems like those aren't ALL of them, right?

That is, last night on my Tanker I was killing zombies and got a badge that unlocked a pumpkin-head costume piece, and that wasn't on the list. Thanks again!

If a character has a TON of badges, i generally tend to think that the person must be at least half decent too and tend to have a more positive outlook on them [is that wrong of me?].

A couple of years ago, i'ld think that 100 was a LOT of badges, but its got to be at least 200 now before you can look at a player in that regard these days i think, what with the speed you can get up to 200 now.

accolade badges, and day jobs, are the only that give you extra powers. beyond that it is how the player feels about them, i love playing my main toon so badgeing gave me a reason to play him more. the other thing i like about badges is beeing able to tell the PLed toon apart from the normal played, if a toon has less then 50 badges at lvl 50 they were pled...alot, and they tend not to know how to play the toon vary well.
BUT at the end of the day it is YOUR view on badges that counts, don't let anyone tell you that you SHOULD badge if you do not want to.

So, is there someplace that I can view the total numbers of badges I've earned?
(This is probably a stupid question, but not as stupid as me counting them out one by one. :P )

Thank you much, SaintNicster! Apparently I have a little under 150 badges! Woohoo!
(How many are there max again? 600?)

Jesus, 700?!? Is there anybody that has ALL of them?