"Merit farming", "trust farming", "sig farming", but does anyone actually grow anything anymore?

It's my impression, now that more time has passed under the merit system, the power to award merits is limited to too few people with too narrow an interpretation of what merits being sMerited.  Two sides of a discussion can be meritable, after all, it takes at least two to have a conversation, even if the other side of the conversation is entirely skewed in their opinion from what you believe / know is right.  Objectively, there is merit in disagreement.