I am not surprised that few newbies have stepped up. Most either are spamming hoping for a merit and not even looking for a place to put decent content, or are too new to crypto to have anything worthwhile to share. Personally, I joined here long before merit was a thing and I am not that worried about the member level. I post what I think I can share, where I at least know something about the topic.

It might be a good idea to have a thread where those who have merit can make suggestions of newbies who deserve it but haven't gotten it yet but that itself can be open to abuse, so I'm not sure what the answer to the issue should be.