Having spent far too much time reading about merits lately I've noticed a tendency towards suggesting changes that would benefit the person suggesting them rather than benefit the forum overall.
[...]
Your suggestion is rather to change the ranking system to mark out exceptional posters (like yourself).
Your implication as to me was not entirely clear; I
think you were disclaiming that your words were not self-serving as to yourself, and I dont wish to cherry-pick a few parts of what you said to turn it backwards. Nevertheless, for clarity:
I should like to emphasize that my suggestion in OP is strongly against my own interests. Or at least, it is what most people would consider to be against my interests.
I was indeed disclaiming self-interest as I'm certain many seeing that I'm approaching 500 merit to rank up to Hero would accuse me of that. The second part of that was to point out you are rather an exceptional case and I don't think we need rank to tell us that.
As of now, I could kick back, make one marginal post (barely above the moderators deletion threshold) every two weeks, and still be called a Hero starting on 12 March 2019. Also, I am almost two-thirds of the way to Legendary, insofar as merit is concerned. Yet I am advocating that I should be required to continue working hard here.
That's a slightly odd way to look at it, but why not? If you've already done what is required to earn the badge then you deserve it even if you do choose to put your feet up on a tropical beach and sip cocktails from now on.
That said, I have sufficient pride that I dont consider a greater challenge to be against my interests. To the contrary: As I said in OP, I want for earning Hero rank (and higher) to be something to be proud of. That means it must be difficult to achieve.
Perspective check: If the first person below Hero rank to ever reach the Hero rank merit threshold says that the threshold is too low, then I should hope that others would consider that opinion.
This is where our perspectives part. I don't see rank on a forum as anything to be proud about. What this is all about is shutting out the influx of spammers. Signatures were tied to rank a very long time ago and this is dealing with the consequence of that. The balance theymos has put in place looks to be effective in stopping shitposters gaining access to valuable signatures and not holding back anyone who is here to learn and participate. I don't feel that there would be any benefit to upping the requirements beyond giving you the challenge you yearn.