Since the merit system has been introduced, the forums (or at least I) have been witnessing a number of newbie accounts with some great knowledge posts.
What if it's the other way around? The merit system made you notice the few Newbie accounts with great posts! Before merit, I almost instantly assumed Newbies were spammers, since there were so many of them actually spamming the forum. Now, thanks to merit, I can easily distinguish between the spammrs and the few Newbies whose posts I'd like to read.
I seem to be the sole idiot who hasn't really noticed what OP's talking about. He didn't give any examples, so maybe those excellent newbie posters do their thing in sections I have on ignore or something.
I can only think of a small number of Newbies I've noticed. But their merit makes them stand out.