2.Soon there maybe a merit farming.
This is very possible to happen and also some guys here will sale their merit to earn money.
This is actually unlikely, at least over the long run.
Accounts do not have any way to automatically gain merit points unless they are a merit source. Also you can only give out 1/2 the merit points you get.
Time will tell how this makes a difference for the spammers. My guess is that it slows the farmers down a lot and that will help as the copy/paste guys gets bans...