I know that this is the intention, but it's not how it works. Equating working hard and smart with the possibility of gaining merits, is not reality. There are way too many great posts out there which recieve no merits while weak posts receive several merits. The causality that's being claimed here, does not hold on average
You will have to rule out the cases where merit system is being abused. Weak posts getting merit points is clear indication that alt accounts or friends are involved in this. Many of those cases are being reported and those members will stop doing this because of actions being taken.
Regarding good posts not receiving merits, that is a valid concern in my opinion. We need to increase the number of merits allotted to merit sources per month. There should not be a situation where a merit sees a deserving post but has no merits to give to it.