Ultimately it comes down to:
if it is appropriate for many people who do not trade (participate in the marketplace) to have an influence on the trust system
Marketplace participation would be even easier to game than your theoretical merit circle. Go to the marketplace, post a thread, have your alts post in it, post some trade feedback... eligible to have influence now?
No to mention that business is done and scams happen outside of marketplace too (gambling, ICOs, etc). Merits at least can't be produced out of thin air by any random newbie and all transactions are public.
But then again no objective person who looks at the fans and recipients of you and your "pals" can believe it is "theoretical" it is clearly there in black and white. The merit merry-go-round.
Pull up the just the top 25 fans and recipients of you and the known "group of pals" each of your lists is riddled with each other. FACT
Match that with your
DT inclusions, the very similar "exclusions" and the way you all in "appear" in any threads calling anyone of you out on abuse or dare to suggest any changes to the systems of control you are gaming.
Nobody would consider that "theoretical" really if they are being sensible and did not have self interest in making it seem only "theoretical"
I would say persons acting in an observable close knit group like this are ripe for blacklisting immediately if you want a "decentralised" system.
You want a group of persons NOT likely to collude or the entire thing is pseudo decentralisation.
You have that with no punishment for flagrant abuse then you have a run away gang that can crush free speech in the name of catching a few 2 bit ico scammers. NOT WORTH IT.