This is only the beggining. A large number of users do not even know that there is such a thing like Merit, and even more do not know how to use it. With time, people will get used to giving out merit points and their collection will be easier.
Either that or many people will ran off from Bitcointalk to another forum, which is good because potentially it will reduce spams 
I am from a distance when the system merit now, I am confused how I can earn merit points while I do not know what to do. Please help sir.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2818350.0Merits are "rare" because merits are only given to bitcointalk members who make quality constructive posts/replies, which are quite rare for the lower ranks hence you see most of them complaining on multiple threads(just like this one).
Those newbies complaining are most likely an alt, they're now sad that they can't farm multiple accounts anymore, at least not so easy anymore.Then again, I've seen newbies with high enough merits to be able to rank up to Member or Full Member