Leaderboard

The purpose of ranks costing more through rank upgrades exists to create incentive to purchase them directly rather than going through upgrades, it also allows for a more gradual increase through ranks over any period of time since ranks are permanent - this is a simply a sales factor and will not be adjusted, if you do not want to spend that much money on a rank upgrade because you feel it is not worth it then it is solely up to you. Otherwise, the points that @TickleMyPickle pretty much sum up the rest of it.