Liking most of these suggestions. One small 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:
Man, look at the number of critical issues that should be taken care on priority! How hard it is to calculate the Default Merits - Earned Merits? You literally just have to know the default numbers for 5 ranks. This is something can be added on the merit page for deep analysis.