That's pretty much how it's supposed to be. The merit system was designed to prevent spammers from ranking up, not to hinder good users. If you do the things you suggest - don't spam, don't scam, don't plagiarize, only make useful posts, learn, contribute, etc. - then you deserve to rank up without being hindered. The merit barrier, as you call it, rightfully shouldn't exist for these users, although arguable it still does. The merit barrier should only exist for the users who are here to spam, and it (largely) seems to be working in that regard.

And ironically, it is the people who are focused most on constructive contributions who rank up the fastest, while those who focus primarily on trying to earn merit and rank up quickly who do not.