I'd like to clarify my position on reps.
I seriously don't care about rep totals. Mine, at the very least, is arbitrary.
That being said, I can acknowledge that some people do, as those people feel they have earned their totals over the years.
While I personally don't believe that reps earned from jokes in misc or being agreed with in debates are illegitimate by any means, I firmly believe that rep abuse can and does exist. By this I mean reps obtained through secretive means, or means otherwise against the rules, i.e. alt accounts, agreements between members to mass rep each other, et cetera. This does not bother me because it inflates a total I have stated so many times to be arbitrary in my opinion, rather I am angered by actions like these because it shows the member in question clearly puts weight in the meaning of said total, and manipulates it dishonestly with clear intent. This sort of action is one of the things that truly angers me, because all but the most nihilistic of views on reps make it clear such a thing (particularly use of alt accounts) is not okay. And yes, this does happen.
As for this topic, I don't believe it would cause any form of harmful inflation, I simply believe it would open the door to even further contention. Statuses are actually fairly regulated at this point, so the older concern of "reps used to encourage flaming" is moot. Presuming everyone can handle them maturely, I see no issue with the idea. I just find such a criteria shaky at best.