Not just you or just sources, I'm talking to everybody, we all have been given power and we all are favoring our friends. thousands of people are lined up to get a chance at receiving merits, we are picking our friends, alt accounts. when you are giving merits to random members, they'd get tagged for attempting to farm merits, when our friends or partners are doing the same, we wouldn't tag them, we would even defend them.
OP,Please provide the proof that all the people/threads mentioned in your first post are favoring their friends and alts.
Do you think that Moderators are not able to spot these threads till now when they are active for more than couple of weeks?
Best option is to use "Report to Moderator" if you think it is abuse and you will get your answer automatically. (If thread trashed by Moderators, then you are right otherwise it is permissible )