[hef19898]

That is slowly changing so. First because most employers are afraid of legal disputes and give roughly a 2 (based on the German grading system with 1 being the best 6 being the worst). The de-facto legal minimum, without hard reasons to deviate, is a 3.

The second reason, nobody is asking for those anymore it seems. The last couple of jobs I took, nobody asked for any of my letters.

Otherwise I agree, it takes some internal convincing to not care about them if your are used to them your whole life.

Im short, those letters suck. And almost everybody knows it.