Yes it is. There is direct dependency between your forum rank and you reward from the signature bounty campaigns. Hero members gain in one week stakes equal to 3.5 weeks for junior member. So the reward will be x3.5.
Before this year the only thing that could up your rank was activity - if you write more than 14 posts every two weeks you will gain higher rank in some time.
But now we have merits - kinda likes. You can send and receive merits. But you cant send as much as you receive - 2 merits to you generate 1 merit that you can send to others.
Complex system. In two words - forget about getting higher rank on this forum. We all will have this ranks forever