It doesn't really bother me, you only need to enter a keep to "meet" lots of nobles at once or speak to a caravan you're passing to "meet" the owner. While speaking to the tavern master makes it easier to locate companion types.
Loooool but no that looks like a different error to mine, it went down to -100 but could be increased using the support clan in the kingdoms clan page but it cost me a lot of influence and not all are cruel lords either. Even the charm perks don't seem to affect it.