That's not true, though. You do lose things by failing when you disconnect. You lose whatever aspect you spent, as well as any leve links the rest of your party has. As well, just by virtue of the leve failing before being complete, your SP/hour plummets (assuming it's a good leve). Failing Dunesfolk right after I aspect and get full links, but before I kill any of the mongrels = crap sp for that leve that day. It's not an sp gain in any way, shape, or form. Yes, I'm getting sp when I retry the leve the next reset, but that's sp I would've gotten anyway. The sp I was expecting from the failed attempt, though, is almost completely lost.
All that really needs to happen is for it to disconnect you faster (which is a separate issue, but still true) and let you rejoin with credit for aspect and links. There's really no need for a complicated pausing system; just have the timer keep ticking.