Thus, bias giving of merit will only apply to high ranks users. And if you are a newbie trying hard to start a thread for merits then you will end up getting a lot of negative reply. I have seen some post started with newbies or lower ranks in their merit related post and definitely get a negative feed back.
NEWBIE + GOOD POST = IGNORE
HIGH RANK + GOOD POST = MERITS
Firstly, a newbie shouldn't start a tread trying
hard to get merits, you should start a thread that would be helpful to others and qualitative trnough to improve your readers even slightly and you'd surely get a merited at some time if you keep at it and don't sti0 offering assurance if you don't get merited.
There are also merit sources who were charged with the duty of finding memorable posts and meriting it, and if you've paid close attention you would have felt their impact on the various boards.
Then there are stories of members here who would debunk your claim, Ddmrddmr who started from scratch with no airdropped merits and now has potential merit count and is only limited by activity. Including many others, some who have achieved different high ranks with no airdrop.
I also used to feel the merit system was abusive and biased till I changed my posting objective and I have since noticed changes.
So the negativity might probably be coming from you, and not other higher ranked members