I don't know if it is as a result of this thread or not but it looks like theymos agreed that there wasn't enough Merit. There has been an update to the Merit Sources.
Merit sources
There are 57 merit sources with a total merit generation of up to 14750 sMerit per 30 days
The same number of sources but more sMerit.
I don't think this was because of my thread. I believe that Theymos is closely monitoring the merit system and would know if there isn't enough merits. He probably was waiting for the default merits to dry up before increasing merit generation.
I get the impression that the initial allocation of merits is pretty well all spent at this time. Also another increase in sources, 20 new sources added.
Merit sources
There are 77 merit sources with a total merit generation of up to 17650 sMerit per 30 days