One amusing story that I heard when I was training at Camberley Judo Club in the early 90s was about a trip some of the boys had made to a Russian training camp.
They said when they arrived they noticed a bunch of Russian players wearing all kinds of colored belts. Some had yellow belts, some green, some blue, etc.
And they thought, how hard can this be? (All the Camberley boys were black belts).
Turns out, very hard. Perplexed, the boys couldn't understand how a bunch of colored belts could be so good.
Then during a break in the session, they noticed the Russian players take off their belts and dump them into a bin. When training resumed, the Russian players would randomly grab belts from the bin. The one previously wearing yellow was now wearing blue and and the one wearing blue was now a green belt!
It turns out the Russians were all top competitors (all certainly black belt level) but at that camp, they just used whatever belt was available.
I don't know if that story is true or just a tall tale but it illustrates an important point. Ultimately, how respected you are as a judoka has little to do with the color of the belt you wear. What's important are the skills you have, the knowledge you have and how you conduct yourself on the mat.
If you wear a black belt but can't fight properly, would anyone respect you? Or if you can fight well but have a very poor knowledge of judo, would people say, "That's a really knowledgeable judoka"? Or if you are good at fighting and have a sound grasp of judo but behave arrogantly, would people respect you?
The answer is no to all of these.
Belt color is an indication of your progress in judo. It's not a very accurate indication but it is an indication that you have some experience. It doesn't however say anything about your fighting skills, your judo knowledge or your behavior on the mat.
Ultimately, a judo belt's main purpose is to hold the judogi together. The Russian players understood that very well. We should too.
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