Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
Think of it this way, it's also the easy way out for the players since it will skip the grinding (which I tend to avoid). I try to keep my game as lean as possible, so people can get to the meat quicker while maintaining some believability. So yeah, sometimes we just gotta resort to magic.
But I do think building up reputation system can be great in a smaller and contained setting such as prison. Sound exciting, huh? It may be in the plan for the future.