For consideration:
If you're counting the initial (airdropped) Merit, which was based on Activity, aren't you double counting Activity?
If new ranking system implememented and based on the suggestion of @LoyceV, it should only take earned merits into considerations.
Automatically allocated merits at the launch day of merit system makes non-sense. Why? Because the allocated merits based on activity-count and the potential new ranking system should avoid overlaps between activity counts and merit counts.
Contributions of forum users should mainly base on earned merits, not total merits - which include both allocated merits and earn merits.