TR_NAME_STATUS

At Bass Hall - Fort Worth, we're still learning the front and back sides of Tessitura.

Recent posts regarding SSRS have been very helpful (thank you), and I'm beginning to develop some preliminary reports.
It may help to create one or more database views containing patron data, and I'm puzzled about one customer field.

I'm familiar with the active flag (link to TR_INACTIVE_REASON) in T_CUSTOMER, and how it (essentially) removes a customer record from the database.
We're considering add'tl values for TR_NAME_STATUS, but I'm puzzled how the database uses this table.

A "Status" field exists on the patron record, and the value for this field is pulled from TR_NAME_STATUS - kinda.

For a specific patron, the name_status column in T_CUSTOMER displays NULL.
In the application, for this specific patron, the Status column displays Active (id 1 for TR_NAME_STATUS = "Active").
I changed the value in TR_NAME_STATUS from "Active" to "ACTIVEXXX".
In the application the Status field for the specific patron displayed "ACTIVEXXX".
And yet, in T_CUSTOMER, the value in name_status still displays NULL.

It appears "something" is telling the application to display "Active" in the status field if name_status IS NULL OR name_status = 1.

Does the application determine the value, or is there a database view that determines the value?
Most of our customer records have NULL in T_CUSTOMER.name_status.  Should this value be updated?

What am I missing?

Thanks
Wendell Baskin