Nevermind i think the points made in the comments are valid 

Don't like this, would make the game too easy.

 Finding targets has always been an interesting part of the game since day 1.

Got to be alert to find good targets, it rewards active players.

What if they come back and didn't want to be levelled up?!

Maybe just not make total rep given be based only on level, it's something a bit dumb that was only cloned from Torn anyway. 

Make it 50% level and 50% total rep.