Damn, that sucks. I came into TTK already above rank 25 with New Monarchy so I was able to start my exotic quest with them right away. I've not seen a need to rank up quickly as I don't particularly care about getting all their shaders/emblems/ships/etc. I have noticed that faction rep is much harder to come by these days, so I can see why people who want those faction packages would be enticed into doing that.