It will really be a dishonorable act to sell merits, than for one to sell merits why not introduce a challenge for the newbies then those who are up to the task awarded.
I'm not trying to be bad or anything, but that's just plain cleverness. I mean, since the higher ranks don't really give too much attention to the lower ranks. So by sharing merits to other members that are the same rank as yours will help yourselves.
But on the other hand, maybe those members that wanted to share merits wanted to recognize members that are really worthy of receiving Merit(s).
Does that mean you see trading of goods that are hard to obtain otherwise a cleverness?
Nobody wants to give me a job so I will pay someone to hire me, even if that means some other guy will have to be let go. Organs are hard to obtain, let's pay instead of waiting in line, I can pay, so I'm better than that poor kid and I should get a transplant first.
Do you see what this would lead to and why such attitude can't be called clever?