huh, funny i watched the first two seasons recently so most of this threads stuff is sort-of fresh in my mind.
although i remember the helmet chant from my childhood i still believed its was a regular hat and just let it slide ( i believe in one of the episodes she said it was a knitted hat from her Nan). I mostly believe the purpose of the hat was to make her stand out amidst the group, as far as my childhood goes sora was the blandest and most pointless of the group and if not for the hat I'd probably go sora who? only in my recent rewatching did i pick up the subtle shipping between her and tai in season 1 and her and Matt in season 2 (going to Matt when tai kept leaving her hanging, although that's pieced together from that English mix'n'match movie so take that for what it is). but i digress, despite that i saw hardly any major identifiable character for sora besides the hat. also the drawers could have just been lazy.
my biggest irritation was whatever the hell T.K. wore on his head in the first season, its a hat version of an Indian turban!