How one awards merit is his own prerogative, although the general spirit is to do it for a decent enough post, and when that is clearly not met, it stands out as strange and a misleading example to others. Of course this is not a cult (well, perhaps a bit …), where by everyone abides by the same tune, but merit should be based on content and not pity in principle.

Beginners & Help board in my opinion gets by with a lower standard for receiving merits than on other boards, and if people really want to invest the time and effort needed in posting, a few merits should be no issue at all really.