Labelling answers as common, rare or one-in-a-krillion sounds like cosmetic flavour. It is actually a claim about your data, and players will test it.
Every tier is a factual assertion
If a category says rare, a player who sees an obvious answer in it concludes the tiers are arbitrary. Once that happens, the tiers stop doing their job, because their only job is to make the answer set feel meaningful.
Tiers need a defined population
Rare compared to what? To the whole answer set, to the answers so far, or to the answers a typical player gives? Each definition produces a different tiering, and mixing them silently is where the inconsistency comes from.
What tiers actually do
The useful function is not bragging rights. It is letting a player calibrate an attempt before committing: this prompt is probably going to be obscure, so I should not spend my time on the obvious guess.
The maintenance cost
Tiers have to be regenerated when the answer set changes. A tier list that is not regenerated is just decorative text, and players notice within a week.
If you are documenting a format, the what unlimited mode changes explanation is more interesting than the tier list itself.
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