Its an interesting topic and I think you bring up some great possible solutions.
I tend to take the higher rep scores with a grain of salt and make my own judgements about them. I know that reps around 25 - 45 or so mean that in most cases the person is new to Steemit.
When I see someone with a reputation below 25 I generally wont even click on their article - maybe this is unfortuate for some who have been incorrectly flagged or targetted
The higher REP scores are premised as 'trust' worthy and model accounts...the first face value of what the platform stands for.....but that is only the ideal, and because one can manipulate and influence his/her own reputation score, as it is, tat score for me is meaningless, and instead serves the unfortunate purpose of giving a bad image for steemit as a platform. Imagine the thoughts, the impressions of a new person who joins and the first thing he finds is the 'controversy' involving the highest REP score account. by that, he/.she will judge the entire platform.
That is why i am of the opinion that if we cannot tweak the algorithm to ensure a more reliable Reputation marker, it is better we get it away all together. we have already done it with the views counter, we can do it with the REP.