I think merit system emplement for reduce spamming and shitposting from the forum. If abuse or misuse merit system on shitpost and they are not punished, so what meaning of upgrade with merit system ? If abuse , trade and buy sale merit so what is benifite will get from this system ? Some one getting 50+ merit on replay of ANN and some one 0 merit even he make HQ quality post.
I think you need upgrade this system again to make it more useful.
Certainly, we can see improvements and changes to the merit system in future.
In my opinion, success o a large forum is dependent mainly on the good members there. It is responsibility of genuine members here not only to make good posts but to also report abuse of forum rules including those related to merit.