unless I misunderstood, the item power level is supposed to indicate how powerful an item is. An item with stats equal or superior to another item should not have lower item power than the other, regardless of their rarity. Higher rarity items can have superior stats to those of lower rarity, but the rarity itself does not make an item superior or inferior just because it has a different rarity; therefore it should not directly affect the item power. That's my perspective, at least.