Well, to  be honest. I was and am wearing signature since the day the merit was introduced back in January. I start this "new age" as a Full Member and now here i am with 341 merits, which mean i got 241 merits while i use signature. Maybe some people who read this will try and look into my merit history and will says that my merits are mostly from meta section. Guess what? People can post in meta but doesnt mean they will get merits, if the post is merited, then someone thinks that it is worthy enough to be merited. That is why i am proud of my merits where ever i got it from.

I guess, there is 2 different side of your case. While you got less with signature, some people just got the merit in a faster rate while using signature (i am not saying this is me).

I heard about marit treading and selling too.