I was surprised at the price of a merit, it was terrible

as I said above, maybe his account was hacked, he didn't work for a long time.
Maybe someone will dig up something relevant about his account and the possible connection with the accounts he sent merits. I think it's somewhere in 2015 or 2016 buying/selling accounts on forum become something that has become negative and DT members start to tag such accounts. Before that it was quite normal, selling and buying accounts was a legitimate business, and some members have a dozen of them, which is not against forum rules.
Problems arise when these accounts are used to abuse signature campaigns or for merit abuse. Airdropped merits on these accounts have become something that can be sold for a decent price. For example, Legendary accounts get 200 merits (in my case), and if you sell them for only $5 each it is easy $1000.