Yeah that's what I am telling that this could do more bad rather than good since either way the ones who will be abusing the merit system won't be affected by the changes at all the only ones who will be are either inactive accounts or accounts who won't be buying any merits.
I don't think that's true.
When theymos introduced the "1 merit for Junior Member" (and therefore a signature) requirement, there was a noticeable and measurable reduction in spam over the following weeks:
The new rule (1 Merit for Jr. Member) is already reducing spam. This is despite all the merit selling and awarding to alt accounts that went on. There would be presumably be less merit selling and alt accounts now, since a lot of accounts involved in this will have used up much of their airdropped sMerits, without earning any more.
I get your point but if you look at the proposal at the top where users are required to at least earn 1 merit on a certain period just to avoid the decay of their merits you will understand that this will be a lucrative business for merit sellers, some normal member might even be merit sellers because of this idea. Yes this might encourage people to finally share their merits as well but like I said this will also encourage members to sell their extra merits for cash which will increase because of this proposal.