Trying to send mail with or without items to myself or other people as well as trading to another player will not work. I do not get any error messages at all. It simply does not complete the function. It only appears to be affecting this one character.
It's not bugged. There's a briefing window you have to acknowledge (which gets closed if you skip the cutscene), otherwise it won't let you start combat.
Yeah, it really is super annoying and unnecessary. It's a pointless feature that serves no worthwhile purpose. It's more a nuisance than anything else.
I'm level 65 on my TOS recruit and claiming the salvage bonus does nothing. It does not say anything about having requirements and does not reward any salvage.