Merits help others to rank up, mostly everyone here is just to earn a side income, and for most of them, it's a living if they are in a signature campaign. Just to stop others from being promoted to higher ranks so as to reduce competition and keep it low (with the fear of losing their own position in that campaign as few may not be confident enough of their capabilities of remaining in the same), they try their best not to share their merits ahead.
If somebody is hoarding the sMerits due to fear of losing a position in sig campaign is stupid. For any btc campaign there is always more number of participant available then number of spots. If they are posting shit then they are not going to be included in campaign. Only solution is to make themselves a better poster.
With so many merit source, they can not stop any deserving poster so better to improve themselves instead of hoarding their sMerit