To be honest, I do not quite understand as well. I am grateful for the merits that were given to me, but I genuinely do not understand why so many people are hung up on getting them. They said it was for the signature campaigns, but I guess if you do not have services to offer and are just here to learn cryptocurrency and communicate with other crypto users then it should not matter much? After all, it is not like we can trade them for bitcoins, right?
A higher ranked account usually gets paid more in many signature campaigns. So getting merit could add up to earning more bitcoin. Also, if someone is an account farmer, they can sell higher ranked accounts for more BTC.