It's only weeks old.  Give the system time to develop.  Sure it takes some time to get merit but you don't need any until you get to member and then it only takes 10 merit.  Takes at least 2 months to get to member status.  Make some decent posts that are related to the topic and you will probably get enough merit by then.  Sure it's not perfect but if someone is writing crap they definitely won't get merit... which is why the merit points were created.  Seems like a decent system to me.  

The part that doesn't make much sense to me is the merits can go to legendary members who don't need the merit.  Sure they are the most deserving on a lot of there quality posts but they don't need them for anything other than it shows they write quality posts....  but the merits are then halved and so half of those merits given are wasted.  Seems like any merit given to a legendary member should stay whole.  A legendary member that gets 1 merit should then get 1 sMerit to send.  

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2818350.0;topicseen

In this post Theymos received hundreds of merit on writing the merit system.  Sure they did a great job and put a lot of time and thought into it, and people agree with the system so gave merit but ... Why does an administrator need merit??