I took my old rear wheel back to the shop and checked the spoke tension with the TM-1. All the spokes read something around 25. This wheel is 5-6 years old and I've never lost a spoke on it despite me riding it basically everyday, so I assume it's tension serves as a pretty good ideal tension (at least for durabilities sake).
As mentioned by a few people here, the mechanic at the shop (a different mechanic because its a volunteer shop) suggested that I tension the front wheel to be less than the rear, but close to being the same. He also agreed with the previous mechanic that having all the spoke tensions within 2-3 on the TM-1 scale was perfectly fine provided the wheel was in true. Perhaps if one had a truly accurate tensiometer and was skilled at getting accurate tension readings it would be worth getting the tensions of the spokes all very similar. However, given the roughness of the tool being used and my novice ability to use it, I reckon I'm can't get a very accurate spoke tension reading anyway.
Given this, I took the front wheel's tension up to 20-22 while maintaining good true.