There should definitely be an activity requirement in addition to the merit requirement being increased.
That would certainly make it harder, but given the number of ongoing account sales, still not difficult enough (i.e. impossible).
It doesn't matter if you can get an account or two to the list this way. It's only important that you can't get a big enough share. We can collectively kick out someone trying to climb up via account sales/farming without theymos intervening. Opening a thread/sending out a mass PM to the whole DT1 list would be sufficient.
You are right, Loyce and I missed that. Each new account would need at least 60 merit.
You've lost me:
Member rank requires 10 Merit.
Oops, I mixed it up with activity. Ignore that post.