if I see that a user has been banned for a long time, I will not send him merit, because that makes no sense. He will no longer need him. Yes, and in the discussions when this issue was raised, all the same, most were inclined to the fact that it makes no sense for banned users to send merits.
I get what you mean from the perspective of a forum user who needs Merit. My perspective, coming from a Merit source who always has a hard time "unloading" all sMerit, is that Merit is deserved by posts, not users. Good posts should be highlighted, even if the user was banned (even though there's a
list of shame for Meriting banned users).
I usually don't send Merit "so that they can distribute it themselves". That's just a side-effect of Meriting a post.
There's another reason for my stance: sMerit isn't scarce. Theymos can create as much of it as he wants.