The stakes depends on the signature space.
The space provided by senior member and hero members are more visible and bigger than the lower ranks.
When I was also new to the forum, I also noticed that but I don't know the history of it, probably that's it.
That caused by you need more effort to make or increase your rank from the newbie to the legendary. The history of stake created by the old system of BTT that gave you 14 weekly activity and you need a certain amount of your activity point to make you able to increase your rank. That's why there was a stake allocation based on level.
Mate i agree to some extent that more efforts should put in order to increase rank but at the same time those that came late to the party are the one most affected, you as an example, you have only earned 4 merit apart from the one given to you because you are a legendary just imagine you are newbie when the rule was implemented, you will still be a junior member by now.