Higher ranking users kept saying we should shut up and stop ranting about the merit system but they did not experience it in the first place. Sure, having a merit system may reflect on the capability of a user to create useful posts, but how about the responsibility of those who own sMerit? Who has the eagerness to read replies in a thread and give merit? It's actually too hard and a matter of luck. No matter how you construct posts, if no one who has sMerit will recognize it, you can't get one.
So I consider myself as a higher ranked user, as I'm at the Hero rank right now. (I haven't told anyone to shut up (yet), if they moan about the merits system). The point is, I do experience the merit system, because I was just 1 or 2 activity periods away from the activity minimum of the Legendary rank when the merit system popped up. Now I need to gather 500 merits to become a Legendary, but that's life. I've already managed to gather 10% of the merits needed, and I can tell you that it's not easy (it's difficult) for a higher ranked user as well.
I think the difficulty to gain a merit for a post is totally the same for a newbie and for a higher ranked member, because they need to deliver quality content in the post and it doesn't matter if the user is a newbie or a Legendary, the only thing that counts is the quality of the actual post.
There are also merit threads where sMerit holders do post reviews and they give away some merits for those who deserves that, and those few merits are usually enough for a newbie to rank up in time to jr. or even to member rank. If you really think that you don't get merits because noone is interested in giving out the sMerits, you should try those sMerit giveaway threads, they will be happy to analyze your post quality and will give you a merit if your post quality is fine for them.