The newer 'merit' system means you will be spending likely more time as a newbie. Previously it was possible to rank up to Jr. Member and then to regular Member status in a matter of several months depending on how active you were. Now it could take longer than that. This should be good for the forum as it will bring less spam, low quality posts.
You already mentioned about the main reason why merit system had been created.It isnt really that long or does require too much time for you to stay up for this rank newbie to jr member does only need 1 merit + 30 activity points then 10 merits for member and so on.
You wouldnt find this as a problem if you do just try your best to post up meaningful things in forum and then merits would come along the way.