It doesn't matter if the person needs it. What's matter if the person deserves it.
I used to not care whether someone "needs" it or not. Until I read this:
I agree with this approach. I considered giving merit proportional to activity, but I decided not to because doing so would probably give far more undeserved merit than deserved merit in total. But undoubtedly some people got screwed by this, and if they have decent posts, by all means, give them the 250 or 500 merit that they need to rank-up.
Of course they still need to deserve it, but if I stumble upon a user who has decent posts and needs a certain amount of Merit to go in rank, I'll give him the Merit needed.
Oh definitely! I tend to have lower standards when giving merits to lower-ranked users. Most of the time, the posts doesn't even need to be sort of helpful; as long as the post contributes decently. I also give merit to people who ask questions, as long as it does make sense and it's not those typical questions like "when price increase?", "what is the best exchange?" and such.