The "rich gets richer and poor stays poorer" is called "Matthew effect" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_effect). Applying this theory to Bitcointalk, it can be interpreted that if a problem or an idea spotted at the same time by a low ranked and a high ranked members, the high ranked member is recognized and the low ranked is easier to be overlooked. I'm not opposed to this Matthew effect, it's quite popular in real life. I usually talk to myself that, you can't change social prejudices on your own, all you can do is never stop proving yourself. One day your effort will be awarded deservedly or at least, you won't be regret that you haven't tried enough in the past.

The forum is far different from a game - where you only need to try hard, kill bosses, clear maps... to rank up and then chill when you hit the highest rank. People are here for knowledge, discussions, bitcoin passion and so on. So just because of reaching the legend rank doesn't mean that they stop giving merit to other legends' good posts. At a certain level, merit is the measure of reputation, I think. There are merit sources to do the merit distribution and the number of them is increasing day by day.