So there's a limited and decreasing amount of merits? Am I getting it right?
Why on Earth would anybody share some limited asset?
So if I want merits, I should "hunt" the users with sMerits and try to make them like me and my posts?
sMerits (the ones that you send) are worthless to you. Sending them doesn't deprive you of anything.
If you want merits the last thing you want to do is try to "make" someone like your posts. That's likely to backfire.