At least 47 of your received merit came from posts that have the word merit in the title (yah, me to...)
It does not seem in the spirit of merit to be rewarded for discussing the problems of merit.
If you had 51 merit points in that time period from discussing Bit (or alt) coin topics, then I would be impressed.
I see your point, this is true but you know why this is happening?
Because a big part of the community is not aware of the system yet. Many did't see the their merit scores at all, but when it comes a time to rank-up, then they start wondering what happens and rush to the Meta section to ask and read. When they find out, then they give some merit to test it and there, this is why the Meta is so popular these days.
This is why I suggested that everyone registered should be informed via PM about the new system in order to become more efficient in a shorter period of time.
But hey, this is my suggestion and ...who am I, just a newbie here. So we will see some development of the system soon as it becomes more and more accepted by the people.