When I go to the WO thread I only see people enjoying themselves and this makes the thread unique. It seems to me it is a much better thread than most threads on the Bitcoin Discussion or Gambling sections.
As for you analysis on merit, AFAIK, merit is not only given for quality posts it is many times for being funny and I see it is given for that reason there many times.
This basically means that merit has become insanely inflated in WBO and legendary rank has become relatively easy to earn, really demeaning the value of the rank, legendary rank was supposed to be reserved for people who get merited alot due to their contributions to this forum, but due to WBO, there have been alot of new legendaries who really just got alot of merits because they pleased the WBO community and participated in the echoing of their opinions between each other, This is problem is also exaggerated due to signature campaigns, legendary rank members can gain a very high price for their signature, which also rewards the members of WBO and provides them incentive to continue this practice.
But on that thread signatures are not displayed so I don't think they are getting paid for their posts there.
A question for veteran members: did that thread change a lot since the merit system was introduced? If so, it means OP is right, if not, OP is wrong.