I actually can't find a +merit button, so I assume newbies and Jr.Members cannot give merits, right? That's a bit weird, it kind of diminishes the ablities of read-only users like me.
This is not correct. You are not able to see that option as you do not have any sMerit currently. Once you get 2 merit points for some of your posts, you will get 1 sMerit. You will then see that +merit option even if you are newbie.
You mentioned that you are kind of read only member. In that case, you will not be able to get any merit (as you post less). Still I doubt that you read the posts well because if you had really gone through other posts about merit system, you must be aware of the answer to the question you asked (as it has already been answered many times).