I agree with part of what you are saying. The thing is, though, after spending all that money going from Standing 0 to Standing 1 is the equivalent of going from "scumbag" to "ne'er-do-well." Then, it takes two additional years worth of prosperous living to finally get to "respectable guy."

I agree that the higher levels should be very difficult to reach, but the lower ones take ridiculous amounts of cash for what you get in return.

If you want to change the "curve" of the path through the levels, so lower ones are easier and the highest ones almost unobtainable, perhaps alter the table as follows:

Level 1 = 6 Treasure
Level 2 = 12 Treasure
Level 3 = 24 Treasure
Level 4 = 48 Treasure
Level 5 = 96 Treasure
Level 6 = 192 Treasure

Or something like the above.

In general, I'm not one of those GMs who is worried that the PCs will end up with too much power (with great power comes great responsibility, et al). I'd rather be permissive at this stage and watch how the Standing system works at the high and low levels, then scale it back if it is too much.

Right now I'm trying out my second option in the OP. As you can see, the spread isn't as steep (it's basically half cost, plus some at the higher levels).

Level 1 = 6 Treasure
Level 2 = 12 Treasure
Level 3 = 18 Treasure
Level 4 = 27 Treasure
Level 5 = 36 Treasure
Level 6 = 48 Treasure

I'll run it this way until it crashes one way or another, and then adjust as necessary. If multiple characters end up the same standing as their leaders years before retirement, I'll know it's too cheap. Until then no point in fixing non-problems.

So far it fits with my group and the amount of treasure I hand out. I'll see how they are doing at the end of Tales of Wilderland.

I think you're on the right track, doc. We just finished The Marsh Bell last night and I'm already tempted to both up the treasures a bit (e.g. 6 Treasure from Gloin rather than 5, etc) as well as reduce the amounts necessary to improve Standing.

Standing is one of those mechanics that probably was never actually playtested but rather "eye-balled" during development. I don't think the world will break by tweaking it significantly.