Yes, that’s a valid concern. My response is that people will probably become more critical and try harder to find out whether good reputation is actually justified or not. The Quantified Prestige system has some basic incentives that make this slightly more than wishful optimistic thinking. 
For example, the number of esteem points you can allocate to other persons is limited, so you need to think hard (invoke system 2) whom you give them to.
Anyway, the ability to manipulate (or more neutrally influence) people is a great advantage, no matter what system people are currently living in. This is a fact of reality that one needs to deal with.
What’s it with all the futurist types wanting to write books all the time? 
Anyway, it’s an interesting concept. The concept of the “People Programming Language” reminds me of the “me” (or what they were called) in Neil Stephenson’s book Snowcrash.