Stayed an ensign for 7 years and never got promoted.
Got an official reprimand on his record for fucking an alien and getting a luminescent STD
I do think he mentions this to the captain at some point (normally ensigns are promoted between 3-5 years of service) Meanwhile Harry had been serving non-stop for 7 years.
I mean he did keep playing his clarinet, but surely his parents would not approve one bit and seppiku must be demanded!
The plot thickens even more; and meanwhile Tom got promoted from being a convicted criminal serving time, demoted to ensign due to breaking #1 prime directive....(something Janeway does herself all the fucking time) and promptly promoted back to Lt. later on.
I think we are on to something here:
Was Janeway racist towards Asians?
Was Harry in fact voyager's Wesley Crusher? (another dissapointment to his mother)
The Prime Directive is one of those things captains can kind of ignore at their leisure, and Starfleet will usually let them get away with it if they're a good captain and don't do it too often, and had decent reasons for doing what they did. But then every now and then they follow the Prime Directive and make big speeches about how important it is to the crew so they don't start thinking they can just break the PD willy-nilly. If you want to get into conspiracy theories, this one is much more intriguing: That Starfleet captains are instructed in the Prime Directive, but also given explicit permission to break it almost at will, if it means advancing Federation values and interests, but only once in a while; but you must maintain the facade that it is general order number one and must pretend to uphold it at all times. It's not a theory I would buy into, but you could make a compelling case supporting it, I think.
Honestly, the Tom-Kim rank thing is just weird; Paris really should be just an Ensign - he has the potential and charisma to rally the crew, but never really uses it for anything except for building the Delta Flyer. Kim works extra shifts, has command experience, and is proficient in almost all ship's systems. Tom can fly a shuttle. If Janeway had a head on her Paris would've stayed an Ensign and Kim would've been promoted to Lieutenant in his place.
Was Janeway racist? No. Did Janeway like Kim in his spot and didn't want to move him? Possibly. Did she think he lacked some component of being a Lieutenant and kept him away from the rank for that reason? Possibly.
It's worth noting from that the season 2 episode Deadlock on, the Ensign Kim (and Naomi Wildman) on screen is not the original Kim who departed from the Alpha Quadrant. Because of the events of that episode, the duplicate Kim that was created joined the original Voyager that was captured by the Caretaker, and therefore is not the exact same person (except on a biological level), but a duplicate or clone of sorts. Maybe Janeway is duplicate-ist?
In some ways Harry reflects Crusher, but he's not as perfect as Crusher is, and thank goodness for that. This is an except from the character concept from the 1994 Writer's bible -
But if Harry was raised with love and care, he was also raised in a somewhat sheltered way. He had no worries, no cares, and whatever minor annoyances life might have brought were deflected from him by his parents. So Harry has some growing up to do. Having never experienced adversity, he has fewer of the tools for coping than some of the others. Though he tries to keep such thoughts from surfacing, he's scared. He's over his head in this mission; he thought he'd be gone a month and then go home to share his adventures with his folks. But what has happened is unthinkable, and often he has the sensation that it's just a bad dream, that he will wake up in his bedroom at home, to the sound of his mother singing in the garden and his father hammering copper plate for sculptures. He goes about his duties with diligence – it's comforting, somehow, to have a job to do – but more than anyone else, Harry is suffering. The others know this, and in their varying ways, try to give the young man a helping hand. Their methods range from Chakotay's stern insistence on duty to Janeway's comforting maternal presence, but among the crew there is no one who doesn't like Harry Kim.
Even Tuvok got promoted from Lieutenant to Lieutenant Commander, although that rank is appropriate for the third-in-command of a starship; Data on TNG was a Lt. Cmdr, along with Geordi, Deanna until mid season 7, and Dr. Crusher. Of course the Enterprise-D has a crew that's almost 7 times as large as a typical Intrepid-class starship.
Kim definitely has the experience to warrant a promotion not just in years, but also in other ways; in season 7 "Nightingale", he takes command of an alien vessel as acting captain, and he serves as the officer in command on the bridge in several other circumstances as well (like when Janeway doesn't feel like it, Chakotay is off trying to woo her, and Tuvok is meditating or playing Kal-Toh or something).
I mean, he was also Tom's sidekick in his Captain Proton adventures, and also managed to fall in love with a Borg, the wrong Delaney sister, a hologram, and the deceased returned to life. It's a wonder he didn't Seppuku himself at some point in the journey.
Poor, poor Kim. Garrett Wang deserves better.