That merit thing is becoming a communistic idea. For Newbies like me, merit will be mandatory for progressing, and I understand this. But harassing everyone to earn merit constantly is a bit too much, really. Now it aims to impose more and more restrictions. This forum should be a place of freedom, but it is getting restricted more and more, sadly.
If you want to exploit the forum, and that is what the sig spammers are doing, then I think it is fair to make you prove that your posting habits are trustworthy. The merit system was created for this purpose. It is obvious from the abundance of merit threads that many new members, and some of the older ones, are not worthy of that trust.