One thing that wasn't mentioned is that some existing merit sources seem to have gotten a source size increase as well, so there should be much more merit flowing.
merit should be flowing but...... I feel older more established accounts still wont give merit where merit is due. That being said I only post to new alt. coins topic post to learn about the projects. Chances are i will never receive merit.
I believe these rules are great to a point limiting amount of posts per week would be better than taking away signature bounties from newbies