JC, just glad to see you are still searching. What can I say I'm a bit cynical, and generally don't have many smerit to be handing out. So I tend to go through the post history first and Merit after.
If the post stands out as particularly well thought out, I run it through google a few different ways. This is unfortunately how I have found most of my plagiarism reports.
Because the post you have been Merited is not plagarised one and you're not Meriting the user but that perticular post.
For a merit source yeah just meriting a post and moving along is fine; that really goes for anyone. I do disagree a little as without a little research this Plagiarist may have accrued enough Merit to rank up. Sure they would have been caught eventually, but in the meantime they would have been able to benefit from the merit received.
I personally do not care if I disagree with the user or their views, but I will not merit someones post if they are guilty of something that will receive a Permaban, and removal from the forum.
Faith in the humanity lost again.
If one newbie post is really good, then it's plagiarism.
Do not let them weather that baby face hidden behind the glorious beard.
There's always a diamond in the rough, or at least a shiny rock in a turd pile.