Skill/Support gem level requirements change

As an unrepentant alt-aholic, I like to share skill and support gems between various characters. Problem is, if I don't level the characters up evenly together, I'm faced with the unpleasant choice of either not leveling up the gems, or making them unusable for everyone else.

When I don't level them up, I think of the XP going to waste and the better stats I'm missing out on.

When I do level them up, I think "Wow, 1% increase, and 3 levels higher requirement, blah!" Or rarely "hey the level requirement didn't go up, but the stats did, yay!"

Now obviously you can't have a balanced game with level 1 characters using level 30 skill gems. So I was trying to think up a solution to this. One would be having fewer level requirement increases, at least when the power being gained isn't great. Another would be to have the skill gem able to "de-level' back down to it's base requirement or any other level under what it already is and above the base.

And yes I know I can trade for skill gems, and some may not be too expensive. Still, it's an extra step, and with all my alts could add up to a lot.

Thoughts?