The main issue this community is trying to prevent here is low quality posts eating up the merits in our economy. 
I don't know if that smiley indicates a joke but the reality is that (1) merits are not scarce and (2) merits that have been sent to alts probably wouln't have been put to good use anyway.I tried to find a picture to make it a little clearer but was unsuccessful.
You're actually right regarding your second point but unspent merits in the ecosystem is still better than poorly spent merits.
My main problem with alt merits is that it distorts the relative quality of posts/posters/ranks/etc and indicates the dishonesty of the perp.
Agreed.Making manipulative/poor merit spending a more frowned upon act in this community help increase the value of given merits/ranks gained from merit-based progression.