I seriously think the main problem is with lower level cars. I am in no way a "hardcore" gamer and I'm still able to do about 1.5 million rep each run consistently in my 400+ Ford GT. I could even push for over and way beyond 2 million but don't really see the point as there is no reward. My main "rotation" of night races leaves me at around 1.5 and that's what I bank. Between rep levels 1 and 50 I have been busted exactly once.
I completely agree that the police AI uses unfair things like rubberbanding and instagib damage, but they get significantly easier once you get a proper 400+ supercar.
Considering the police AI uses unfair tactics, I have no problem using a hole in their logic: The police don't do box ins, brake checks, roadblocks or spike strips during races for obvious difficulty balancing reasons. So the trick is to keep doing long distance sprint races, and trying to avoid getting into chases outside of races.
Circuit races just condense all the cops into a small area and eventually you will start lapping them, resulting in you getting swarmed as soon as the race is over. On the other hand, if you keep up maximum speed (300+ km/h) during a long sprint race you will see how you start to finish those races outside of a chase more often than in a chase. When you cross the finish line you should do a immediate 180 and take the first side street you see, drive for maybe half a block and stop. This is because the game loves to cheese players by unfairly spawning additional cops near race finishes, most often to the road where you finished, driving towards you. So taking a side street to the opposite direction of where you finished usually avoids these additional units. If you are outside the city just drive offroad and away from the highway immediately.
Once you see where the cops are on the map drive to the next race avoiding them and avoiding a chase as much as possible. When you get into a chase outside a race they have their full bag of tricks at their disposal.
The idea is to use your own unfair tactics against the cops to balance their overwhelming power against you. I personally think that in this regard the game has succeeded exceptionally well, as long as you know what to do.
Oh, and never do any race that pays you less than 20k rep. It is not worth your time. I personally think even sub 30k is pushing it in terms of worth the effort.
