well i know that feel, since one of my friend had the situations almost same like you ( he only need to wait another weeks more to become Sr. Member)
To me it looks like the ones that already has a high rank likes merit because they got a great number of free merit and also don't need to rank up.
While us new members don't have any merit and hardly gets any even if we post great quality posts.
To conclude:
- High ranked members like merit
- Low ranked members do not
i really do agree with this , man when i saw my friend reactions after the merit systems come , it's really priceless lol.
After all we all know this merit systems just like a "like" on facebook, an "upvote/karma" on reddit.
The different is merit has limit , AND THIS IS THE PROBLEMS here why it's hard to get merit