You can take a look at the forum’s official Merit stats here: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=merit;stats

Specifically, in relation to your question, you can see:
-   Top merited recent replies: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=merit;stats=topreplies
-   Top merited replies all-time: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=merit;stats=toprepliesat

Additionally you can see the most merited posts here:Most Merited Posts
You can delimit the period of time (i.e. to 2019) by using the slider, or delimit the shown list by section/subsection (specific board name).

Similarly, you can see which threads are the most merited ones here (third information block on the right of the screen):Rankings