To be honest, @OP did pretty well until now, 36 posts for 4 merit is good ratio. It's not like he/she is writing 50 posts per week for months and is stuck at the low rank despite enormous effort. With the increased activity merits will come.

There were quite a few merit giveaway threads lately, and some of them were even closed due low interest from newbie/Jr Member ranks, so i would say that system is working as intended and is not stopping any decent poster to get the merit. On the contrary , i often see high ranking members giving newer members merit, as  a sort of encouragement to keep going on.