I think that the number of bots will not decrease, they will spam in other topics. This can reduce the number of participants in bounty campaigns, which is good for us, but bad for the newcomers who signed up for the forum just because of this. You're right, 1 Merit earn is not so difficult, so the system has the right to life.
They are spamming on other boards after all, after they joined bounty campaigns.
The forum gets a good PR for them, but if you stick to this system, then everyone who wants to participate in bounty projects on the forum, and not on other sites, must first study it and benefit, what you said. We sacrifice a quantity in favor of quality, which is good for some, but for others it's bad.
Good for some? I think the number of people who will benefit to the quality over quantity of posts overweighs those who people who don't so it is better to force this idea and let's see what will happen