i tried the /who #channel at a network where i have no status. I'm referring to the reply looking like

#channelname nick value userid@host otherstuff

the value i'm seeing contains a + if someone is a voice, and contains a @ if they're an op.

Watchdog, you're saying that the /who reply is configurable to not even give the op/voice information for a channel you're in? I'm assuming the OP is referring to variants of ircd where +q is founder level status of the channel, and they appear in nicklist preceded by a ~ or other symbol similar to the way ops are preceded by @.