I just got off the phone with WoTC and I guess I'm really confused about AL.
At GenCon I played in all the events available that are part of the Expiditions. I believe these are DDEX1-1 to 3. I was given a DCI card so that I might register with Wizards and my adventure log had places for my DCI as well as my GMs. I was also lucky enough to win a magic item for which I received a certificate.
When I got back home I registered my DCI number and wasn't terribly surprised when the card I had filled out at GenCon had not been processed. No problem, I'm not above doing the work my self. I guessed later, when WoTC caught up, my character information as well as the electronic log of games I played would be updated. I frankly forgot about it until today.
I logged in to the DCI site and, still not seeing any update, decided to call WoTC directly to inquire. What I learned made me sad.
The DCI number is really more about MTG tournaments than any organized D&D play which, as he said, was all just for fun and not in any way logged or tracked online. The rest of my questions were met with equally disappointing answers.
What is the point of organized play? What is the point of stating that changes to your character are not allowed after fifth level since nothing is tracked, how would anyone even know? What is the point of magic certs? Why do I log my DMs DCI if I can show up with a level 4 sorcerer or level 9 sorcerer with no one the wiser?
I want to add that I'm not trying to "win" or find a loophole, quite the opposite really. I want my characters advancement to actually mean something and I maintain this database online, on the official WoTC site makes me feel more like my hero exists with thousands of others as part of something greater than my home group could accomplish.
Do I just have delusions of grandeur for what this program is or is this disappointment mirrored by other as well? Or perhaps the most hopeful answer is that the customer service rep, though seemingly experienced, is just plain wrong.
When Living Forgotten Realms first started off (the 4e living campaign), they did the whole online tracking with the judges at events logging info for characters onto the website. This didn't work out quite so well because of either the website being stupid or the judges being non-computer literate or who knows what.
So, they went to allowing players to use the online database to track their characters. This worked for a time, but players had a logsheet .. why bother updating the website?
So, they stopped requiring the logsheet and went to the honor system, basically.
With Adventure League, I was hoping they were going to go back to the online database being managed by the judges of the event, or even allowing players to log in and enter their character info for an event. They would mark who their DM was, which would allow for the DM to correct any issues with the information the players provided or to make notes for the player, to congratulate on great RP or to remind them to remember their bonus action each turn. Stuff like that.
At the very least, we appear to be required to have the logsheet, at this point in time. Time will tell if they abandon the idea altogether.
I really hope someone in the know jumps on this. We *want* our characters to be tracked online for official AL game play!
It's a role-playing game. I'm not sure how tracking accomplishments really proves anything honestly. I get that you want to have it mean something, but honestly, most DMs are loath to kill you. Just because you can make it to tenth level or whatever doesn't necessarily mean anything. Some DMs won't even allow you to miss a magic item, so even acquisitions are fairly meaningless in terms of "competition". The main problem is that you're dealing with an RPG, and Wizards is trying to create a tracking method for it. The two don't really jive. Tracking is mainly so Wizards can see how many people are attending events and how stores are doing. I'd rather send them a picture of my game tables and let them count heads, but whatever.
If you've looked at a database, it's not that interesting.
Do you really need them all logged at WOTC HQ...why, what would that do? They have a pile of number in their database...and?
If they were recording groups choices in play and using that like a voting system to determine latter content, I could understand why you'd want it logged at HQ.
Your character data isn't important to Wizards, only how much you play. But providing them with the play frequency data can convince them that they need to step up how they reward their fan base for non-TCG games.
My understanding is that DCI numbers are how stores report their play numbers to Wizards. For MtG, they also use the numbers to track play results. Since D&D isn't cometitive or ranked, there's no value is tracking anything more than how many players (new or otherwise) are playing D&D.
The real tracking for Adventurer's League is your logsheet.
To the OP: If you showed up at my event for the first time with a Level 4 or Level 9 (or anything else) Sorcerer, I'd ask to look over your logsheet and magic items before your first session. My wife plays a sorcerer, and if you had a nifty magic item, I'd probably check and see which adventure you earned it in so I can recommend that she play the adventure. Of course, if we've already played the adventure (or play it and find the item doesn't exist), we'll suddenly become "the wiser." 
So, while WotC doesn't track things electronically, you are expected to present your log (which you maintain yourself) at play events.
Elsabeth, the AL is (as you've figured out) very much a "personal integrity" system, where your fellow players and DMs are the only ones who will "call you out" if something seems odd. There are no watch dogs or big brothers to enforce "authenticity". Unlike other Organized Play systems, this one isn't going to be about logging in a record of your accomplishments or inventory of items won.
That can be hard to swallow because there are a lot of missed opportunities when you "deregulate" things like that, as you've elucidated and discovered with your phone call.
However, it can also open up a lot of different aspects that might not be readily apparent. By dismantling any emphasis on recording or validating character achievement through "official" channels, it places the resonsibility for a character's playability and legitimacy squarely at the foot of the local player community. Much like a scouting troop, there is no national proof required that you've earned a badge or patch or whatever--those things are awarded to you because the immediate hierarchy of troop leaders empowered to do so has determined the tasks or skills you've developed are commensurate enough for you to earn them. Your fellow scouts, one's peers, are the ones who instill those badges and patches with legitimacy. Thus in AL currently, there is no one but your fellow players and DMs to say, "Yes, you played that adventure." There is only the DMs DCI number and the word of your fellow players to say, "Yes, the player was rewarded that magic item."
So yes, that means that a less scrupulous player could potentially show up at a con or gameday with forged numbers and fake experience and play their character, or go to a con and say, "I earned a +1 Ring of Protection with this other group over there in another state and all I have is what's written on my log sheet to prove it."
But that also means that those items, in general, are much MUCH less valued. It means that characters and players aren't "successful" because of what certs they've earned or have available, or what they've played, or how powerful they are. It completely diffuses that paradigm for the most part. What it replaces it with is an emphasis on the table play itself. It seems that with AL, players will choose to play in spite of those potential pitfalls because they simply enjoy playing. And I know that's a platitude that is hard to swallow, and a lot of players will find that simply laughable because it means your fellow players and DMs have to be mature enough to embrace that idea. But even if a player forges all the magic items possible to accrue in the adventures available thus far, and all the experience points in the world on their log sheet, in the end, is that any fun? "Cheating" becomes irrelevant in some ways when the mechanism that enforces that model is dismantled to a certain extent. You can only burn so many local bridges as a player by abusing the system until you have to travel long distances to play at all.
I'm not sure AL will ever emphasize "legitimacy" from the top down in the level of detail you desire by having the database you desire. It seems the players themselves are left to be their own watchdogs, from the ground up. And that's not for everyone, truly. I, for one, will say that the players and DMs I've been with in AL thus far are doing it because they love doing it, and that's a swift and terrible equalizer when the bottom line becomes, "Player or DM, you're causing everyone else to not have fun. What are you going to do about that?"