I think, yes the merit system is helping the forum.
It is helping the forum.
It eliminates spammers and encourage members to post and contribute useful information that can benefit and users can learn from.
But not that really effective. The goal of this new system is for that but there are still a lot of spammers. The root of spams are the Signature Campaigns that are popular in these forum, there are still campaigns so some spammers don't really care if they do not rank up as long as they are reaching their post quota and earning money.
However, I think it's really hard to gain merits because a "constructive / quality" post is based on one's own perception. So we should really work hard and research some more to obtain it.
If you know some posts that is worthy to be given a merit, you can post it here who knows you might be a source.