Krieg itself was once an wealthy trading hive world, which is as close to paradise hive world as you can get. As far as I'm concerned the idea of "minimal wage" wasn't totally unknown for them and most of the world was actually pretty well-off (I imagine it was something between Imperial Germany and Hansa in style, and had a bunch of great composers, painters and so on), which has lead the Council of Autocrats, their ruling elite which was arguably democratic, to belive that they can rip out of Imperium, sorta like Severan Dominate.
Not that Kreig wasn't a better place to be pre-kreig, but I think calling a group named the Council of Autocrats anything resembling a democratic body is a stretch. They may well have had the support of the governed, but that also applies to the Imperium as a whole.
A paradise hive...I guess the right word for that would be arcology. Kreig the Arcology World. Still, hard to avoid the creation of things like the underhive with any sort of structure like that.
Was gonna try a writething on a Korps guardsman who'd been given a medal for "heroism" by The Lord Commander and ordered to "Wear it proudly".
Not even sure what that would be like though.
Some sort of riddle/punishment?
Slap it on the uniform and keep clean... in other words, he's not going to think about it really, it's just another piece of equipment. Also, while they don't give a single shit about medals and such, they aren't going to disobey a direct order. I'm more concerned about the fact that nobody would stop the Lord Commander or that he had an idea to give one to a Krieger anyway.
Everyone knows of the deliriously glory-addicted type of officer who patiently listens to everyone's concerns and then completely ignores them in favor of their own proper sense of judgement. Such a person would hear his subordinates explain how Kreigers...are and respond "Right, jolly good having you keep me up on these things, now about the award ceremony?".
And you are forgetting one thing, that being told to be proud of accomplishing something actually does run afoul of one of the very few emotions common to Kreigers, overwhelming existential guilt and suicidal idealization.
I for one like the idea that it would be seen as a riddle, to find a way to both be prideful of their service to the Emperor and never disobey orders while still being part of a culture who's primary and practically only ethos is "die for the cause".