People can pick holes in the merit system all day long, and mostly if it goes against you.
But no one has proffered a better option.
Merits since it was created has greatly increased the quality of the forum, of course some users were airdropped merits for being early on the forum, but it reflects the level of contribution of the user.
I doubt that the question is whether some "better options" have been proffered because ultimately there are many reasonable ways that merit (or something else could be administered). The owner retains discretion over systems, and surely has discretion about he extent to which he considers suggestions to be meaningful and practical to implement to either tweak or transform that the system that is already present.