In the question that defines "Total Reputation", David mentions in a comment that it's just to show off how many people you have referred.
Reputation has value in normal Stack Overflow world (it allows you to do things). Does that mean that "Total Reputation" on Area 51 provides no value other than looking good for having referred people (who themselves have a lot of reputation), or will this referral based reputation have some other use down the road?
Edit:
I just realized that reputation garnered from referrals does have real value: it has meaning on the Area 51 site. See this user as an example of someone who referred many people but hasn't contributed any proposals or questions:
http://area51.stackexchange.com/users/2973/tal-galili
I realize that referrals are important, but it seems like it's being overstated in importance compared to other forms of contribution.
Related question: