That's because back on Live, running out of contacts was a thing that happened. You could, and people did, hit a point where they'd completed the contacts at a given level and needed a way to keep leveling to gain access to the next range of contacts. Repeatables were introduced as a way to bridge that gap, to provide an alternative to street sweeping, and (prior to Issue 16 and Super Sidekicking) an alternative that reduced or eliminated the need to play Mentor Tetris. (Mentor Tetris was a MASSIVE PITA, and nobody I knew mourned it's demise.)
While Newspapers and Radios still fill a role in introducing contacts... The need to provide a source of additional XP and/or to reduce/eliminate the frustrations of Mentor Tetris is now obsolete. The problem we have today isn't having to find a way to level to reach contacts, it's that it's so easy to outlevel contacts.
So, I can kind of see the OP's point. A more organic way of finding contacts (basically moving Find Contact into something the character does naturally) would be welcome to certain playstyles.