Sr. Member, Hero and Legendary do they need a merits? These rank should be exempted on merits systems instead they are the one who will judge the lower ranks by giving merits.
These could benefit the forum members as a whole;
1. Newbies that work as a spam will be controlled.
2. It will give an opportunity those newbies that really working hard to rank up in fair time.
(I saw a lot merits just given to the the higher ranks which a post is not really worthy of a merit. majority of the merits just dwell in their realm. Lower
ranks just gets the crumbs)
3. Merits will be distributed fairly to the lower ranks because higher ranks will not think of their merits anymore.
'Hope this post can get crumbs.'
Those who are in the Sr. Member, Hero and Legendary ranks still needs merits because as you suggested, those ranks will judge the lower ranks by giving merits. If they (Sr. Member, Hero and Legendary) run out of sMerits to give, how can they judge those lower ranks? It's a cycle, they can't give if they don't have receive any.
You can read all of the forum and majority of the merits are in the circle of higher ranks. The lower ranks receive merits just only by chance.