I like the idea of merit. As I said in the main post I think it will help cut down useless posts and spam. It will also help fight against signature campaign fraud and account farming.
My only issue with the system is that I was 30 points away from becoming a hero member, but now, I will also have to wait for another 250 merit points. I think that they should have made the merit equal to activity for its introduction.
The matter is with merits, you have to totally depends upon others, on their generosity, their free time. That also requires lots of luck. I don't really think that the merit system, by which I mean the current one, will actually solve the problem in fairly way. hence, the merit system should be ajusted in some more appropriate approach.