I am sharing my story only.
I registered here before the new 1 merit requirement but I was not active. The day I returned I saw lots of people were complaining about the new system. However, I didn't have any intention of gaining merit. I was reading an article posted by a newbie and I felt I read it somewhere else. At last, I found the original link and made comment here with the link. After a couple of minutes, I realized I got a merit. I had no intention of achieving merit but I got one from my 2nd post here.
Moral of the story- Don't run after merit, rather engage with people with meaningful posts. You will get merit automatically.