It's all Neelix fault and why was he taking orders from him and calling him sir? I would have told him to get some sticks his own self.
Because in Star Trek the main cast outranks everyone else on the ship, regardless of what their actual ranks are.
Official or not, Neelix was part of Janeway's inner circle, a part of senior staff briefings, involved with strategic planning and the crew knew it. Combine that with his knowledge of the Delta Quadrant and his experience s a scavenger, it's credible he would be in charge of a team looking for supplies and shelter in this situation.
Poor Hogan. I remember liking him a lot. I'll have to see if my memories hold up but I felt it was great that he didn't have high opinions of Janeway and Starfleet, as in it was cool to see a variety of viewpoints and maybe there was validity to them all. That part of Season 2 is mixed goods but having a variety of secondary characters around like Hogan, Jonas and Suder was pretty fun for me.
Neelix is definitely partially to blame for not thinking a big pile of large animal bones was a sign there was a predator.
Neelix is like an Ambassador, so he diplomatically outranks everyone on the ship except for maybe Captain Janeway.