To me this is a work around for the much bigger issue that leveling cards doesn't give you as much game play advantage as it should.

Let's say cards would be buffed (which in my opinion at this point would be pretty much card-price manipulation, since cards have established prices, but let's just go with it). This would result in players wanting to level up their cards, correct? So basically, the same outcome for players wanting to combine cards for higher rewards. What exactly is the difference?