I thought I would have "supported" more Newbies than just 3, but indeed, after checking my merit history, this is correct. It is much easier to Merit higher ranks than finding the rare good Newbie posts.
The past red trust, the change of merit awarding behaviour shortly after new restrictions and the timing of merit awarding with 20 sec intervals is enough factors for me to think that it is farming after all.
Please let's not use timing as a criterion for abuse. I often open a bunch of +Merit in tabs and then just submit them all and I'm sure I'm not alone doing that.
Even better: I try to do it as fast as possible

Example: 3 seconds in a row at 3 posts merited per second:
September 15, 2018, 04:59:32 PM: 1 to laszlo for Pizza for bitcoins?
September 15, 2018, 04:59:32 PM: 1 to Coding Enthusiast for Re: Coin Control in Electrum
September 15, 2018, 04:59:32 PM: 1 to shorena for How to sign a message?!
September 15, 2018, 04:59:31 PM: 1 to Vod for Re: Merit - one week later
September 15, 2018, 04:59:31 PM: 1 to Atalol for Storing Bitcoin - Please corect me if I'm wrong
September 15, 2018, 04:59:31 PM: 1 to cryptocrusher for My take on Merit
September 15, 2018, 04:59:30 PM: 1 to DannyHamilton for Re: Network fee estimation
September 15, 2018, 04:59:30 PM: 1 to Thirdspace for Re: How to sell Bitcoin on your Cell Phone from a Paper Wallet
September 15, 2018, 04:59:30 PM: 1 to ChiBitCTy for How to sell Bitcoin on your Cell Phone from a Cold Storage Paper Wallet