It *feels* like current play rewards developing massive international empires and placing on the top 5 or 10 of an entire country. This is problematic if someone wants to focus on a regional network. In the current V1 model there is no rep bonus for becoming the best network on the east coast.
My brainstorm idea, at least with the v1 model, is that the populated countries are subdivided into regions with their own leaderboards.
I know there is also talk of the rep system being removed or overhauled.