Many will wonder after reading the title. Maybe many will blame this idea.
But, in my opinion, ranking up is way too easy now...
So I suggest to raise the merit standards because it is way too easy to earn them and also raise the needed activity for higher ranks.
That is a situational irony you've got here, OP. That you your merits easily thrown at you doesn't mean it's that easy for others or that you're a better poster than they are. Just count your blessings and be mutely grateful to the community.
In addition, your post brings to the fore of a popular saying in my tribe, this I will loosely translate here -
A man with a healthy penis doesn't know the travails of one with the elephantiasis of the scrotum.