You can still come back to the posts you want to merit later on when you have sMerits to give. You don't need likes for that. Just bookmark the post or save it to a new document that you keep on your computer for posts you intend to merit later on. When your stash of merits goes up, find a post you like from your saved history and merit it.

I believe we should start worrying about the merit system when established members who have received thousands or merits start speaking out against it. If they deem it unfair or bad even after having received so much, then we have a problem.