This.

We are so often focused on micromanaging merits (no doubt affected by the incessant newbie whining in Meta) that we tend to lose sight of the big picture. Yes, sometimes a shitposter will get an undeserved merit AKA nuclear shelter. That's fine. 99% of them won't and this will go a long way towards cleaning this forum up, especially if theymos decides to appoint more moderators/patrollers. That's not to say we should not be careful with sMerits or not look out for merit sale/abuse but let's not sweat it too much either.

BTW those juniors with one merit and 1000 posts will stick out just like newbies with 1000 posts. See one like that, check their post history, report some (or a 100) and chances are he/she/it/whatever will get banned, which is almost as good as a nuke if a bit more wearisome.