Theymos gave already the answer its legit if it comes from free will of real users.
Stinger has posted that he have been abused in the past in his opinion and wishes changes.To achieve changes some people need to get voted up.If sending Merit to people you wish to move up would be forbidden how do you ever wanna implement a communities DT list when majority of merit is being hold by a very small group.
All this doesn't change that you should merit post that are actually worth it and not send merit solely for the purpose of gaming the system.
It would still be merit abuse.
You want me to show you where current DT members got their merit from ?
Maybe you should start reading how they defended their merit from BS posts.
Theoretically speaking: Merit sources have some different integrity rules than regular members, especially in the arena of quid pro quo, which could also be a problem is they are using their source merits for personal agendas (which in that regard could be considered a kind of selling, even if not direct). Factually speaking: I know very little about Stinger, except what was described in these recent posts, so I, personally, would not have enough information to conclude that any kind of merit source abuse would have been taking place, specifically in regards to that situation.
If he thinks a movement on BCT is a good idea which in his opinion brings improvement to BCT where is the problem to give for that action merits ?
You are not forced to only give merits for quality posts but also actions.