I wrote a script that might help you. See Bash script to filter new topics created by high rank members only

As fairly noted by shield132, it's a double edged sword because it's not a good thing if high rank members only read topics created by other high rank members. But at least it helps newbies (like me) to catch up all the necessary knowledge. With my little script and Piggy's impressive tool, you can probably achieve what you want.

By the way, I also just noticed there are a built-in Merit Stats within the profile section Bitcointalk! For example, Top-merited recent topics is very helpful (you need to be logged in to see this link)