This just seems like a dead end for now. I gave up on applying for a Merit Source, it's no use and I have no free time lately. Seems like the merit correction will be at the same intervals as the bitcoin halving.
I haven't visited this thread since I replied here in January (and I should have, since I got a couple of replies to my post), but it does look like Theymos isn't tapping any new merit sources for now. I do wonder why that is and if he thinks that there's sufficient merits circulating for it to be less of a burden to rank up.
On a related note, if you're reading this Theymos, I could use my source sMerits replenished a bit more quickly. I've been handing out a lot of merits as of late and have had to almost exhaust my earned sMerits in doing so. My plan is to continue the spree, though there are days when I do less reading and don't find anything worth meriting--but that's always been the case. Hopefully Theymos will grant my request, but if not it's not a huge deal.