Sure, something like that could work. That would allow newer users to start earning something sooner as they would only need a single lower-level verifier to allow them to start exercising their influence rather than requiring a bunch of verifiers to unlock the privilege of earning.

My only concern is that the lower and lower we go in the verification hierarchy, the more likely we are to see abuse from the lower level verifiers. This would require a vigilant community which we are kind of lacking now. But, I think this is a better compromise if we were to implement this kind of system on the Steem blockchain.