>Tangentially are any of the rep-passives bad or will "get the
>prettiest" work?

I'm not too terribly up on my theorycrafting, but I don't think any of the passives are actively bad unless they're in the "increases threat but your ship is a glass cannon" variety (and I'd have to go look at the wiki to see if any are like that). Just take whichever one better fits your playstyle or is prettiest or what-have-you; if in doubt, I tend to lean towards offensive abilities.

"Mathematics brought rigor to economics. Unfortunately, it also brought mortis."
- Kenneth Boulding