Minderwiz,
According to what I remember from Curtis Manwaring, a planet in detriment has its effects "turn bad". The planets in detriment have positive effects, but those effects become ruined eventually. Another characterisation is that a planet in detriment fails to deliver on its promises.
There may be other things too, like a planet in domicile is like the owner of a house, and a planet in exaltation is like a VIP, but I don't know if this originates from Schmidt or other astrologers.
I am currently interested in researching this subject because Lilly's table shows that, for example, domicile has a higher value than exaltation, whereas Maternus would have it that a planet in exaltation is better than a planet in its domicile. Perhaps they are both right. So I am trying to figure out in what sense domicile is superior to exaltation, and vice versa.
Then we have the trigons. This dignity is very important for both Dorotheus and Valens, but is inferior to domicile and exaltation according to Lilly. My sense is that trigons have power over a particular topic within a subset of one's life span, and in that sense may be inferior to domicile, as the latter have power over a particular topic for the entire life span. Of course neither lords may be activated as time lords at any particular time, and so their effects may not be apparent during the time they are inactive. But trigon lords also affect one's overall eminence, whereas there is no known techniques which utilise domicile lords to forecase eminence. So in this aspect, trigon lords may be superior to domicile lords.
Bounds and decans are the most obscure dignities. I am unsure of the rationale behind these dignities. I do not use the decans because there is not much documentation about it in the Hellenistic texts. Nevertheless, I think they were used to forecast ailments, illnesses, injuries and bodily weaknesses, once upon a time.
Larxene