The solution to the problem is remove the trashy merit system or reduce its purpose to what its design is useful for only: stopping bots ranking up.
There have been many good improvements suggested but of course those abusing the current flawed design for their own selfish gain (most of meta) are going to fight any changes.
This place generally runs as the community wills it to. The very fact that you have to resort to posting from an alt-account to make it look as though there's more dissent than there really is speaks volumes.