Aren't merits an overrated like button? Overrated because only a select few can dish them out as they please, and the rest of us mortals have to make do with limited amounts? Saying the system is flawed isn't fair. What people find merit worthy is subjective, unless you have a mind control drug that can be applied to everyone on the forum so that we all think and act the same way.

Constructive comes in different forms for different people: Informative, educative, helpful, funny, etc. Then you have the sycophants, and those that have the same opinions but cannot be arsed to post, so meriting is a of showing agreement, nothing wrong with that, and some use it as a way of saying thank you. It isn't perfect and can be gamed. Make no mistake, any system can be gamed, after all this is just a forum. But it has so far done what it was implemented to do, to reduce spam, Which it has to an extent, eventhough it means some of us will take forever to rank up.