You could have kept your intentions at heart and just work towards it without creating a thread as to that regards obviously there are some good post that requires merit but creating a thread just to show you want to merit individuals can be seen in a negative way as well
Everyone is entitled to their own opinion or judgment of situations and most definitely, OP doesn't have answer to anyone about this regardless of their opinion on the thread. There are lot newbie posts that are merit-worthy but in most cases are not seen by those who could have given it merit or sometimes seen by higher ranked members who probably have a very high standard of what a merit-worthy post is. However, it is only a of matter time, any user with quality posts will eventually get merits without having to try too hard.
Still, In my opinion this is a welcomed idea and I think If so many higher ranked could have a thread like this and somewhat limit it to a specific no of required activities/account age in order to prevent farmers, then newbies wouldn't have to worry much about getting their first merit.