Honestly, to a certain point, I feel like every covenant should have an equal amount of love put into it. The Pilgrims of Dark is barely even a covenant in Dark Souls 2, since it has no PvP or Co-op things to be done and the only thing it actually does is open up a few extra areas and a bonus boss.

But I definitely understand how you want more love to be put into the Sunbro's covenant. When you reach Rank 3, the only things it really does are making you slightly more effective as a phantom summoned to another world and making your summon sign glow bright yellow. Although your ideas sound good on paper, how much of a chance do you think there is that the stuff you're describing wouldn't be overpowered or easy to abuse in some way?

Also, if they're going to make an "ascension" mechanic that lets a player reach higher ranks for one covenant, they should make an "ascension" mechanic for every covenant. Otherwise, why would you choose a non-Sunbro covenant, unless you just wanted to do PvP? As I said before, there should be an equal amount of work and effort put into every covenant. People will complain if one covenant obviously has way more effort put into it than any other.