Liking most of these suggestions.  One small [//EDIT: very minor and not at all urgent] one I'd like to add to the list is to show an "earned" merit stat next to the regular one, excluding the starting "inherited" merit.  So at the moment, for example, mine would show:

Merit: 1127 (+127)

And hilariousetc's would be (if I'm right that Heroes started with 500):

Merit: 1080 (+580)

I'm thinking that, over time, it's going to become tricky to tell what rank a user was when the system was launched.  It would be helpful to be able to differentiate between what they've actually been given by other users for their posts and what they started with.  The above example is pretty good as the OP has clearly earned way more than I have, so it seems a little unfair not to make that clearer.