Any Newbie/Jr.Member/whatnot, who has more than two neurons, and puts effort and time into his posts is likely to get merit sooner than later.
You're definitely correct,and it's basically this simple:while some users happen to be more knowledgeable than some, hence earn a higher percentage of merits than the others,but really one doesn't need so much knowledge to earn at least one merit which will move one up to the Jr member rank(not like they should be satisfied with this rank)...
Earning one merit should be a point of discussion really,except one isn't ready to contribute on the forum