Why are character levels tied to amount of covers?

Unknown

So I haven't played MPQ in two weeks now. I had decided to take a break because I was feeling a bit burnt out on the game. One of the reasons I was feeling burnt out is because after grinding 9 days to get a new character, I found I cant really use him anyways.

I have lots of the new characters with only 1-3 new covers and because of the level cap I can only get them to level 20 or so. So I have this fresh new character but there is no way I can use them competitively unless I spend money to get even more covers, or wait and grind out more events to earn more covers. Leaving weeks or even months before I can effectively use a character that I was so excited to win.

So the question is why is it like that? Why cant I have a level 141 Psylock that is 2/2/1? She would be at a level that I can use her. She wont be as good as someone who has the max covers, so there is still the incentive to earn/buy more covers for her and other new characters, but it would allow me to use and enjoy a new character that I just unlock right away as long as I have the ISO.

Maybe I am missing the balance portion of this or its just a dumb idea but I would rather use a level 141 0/0/1 Lazy Thor than just looking at a level 15 "waste of cover slot" at the end of my character pool.

Unknown

A: To have you spend more money on hero points...