Finally, I believe merit sources do not give higher merits to lower ranking members because they believe they may abuse the smerits they will have as a result of the given merits. It's somewhat showing that the merit system works in conjunction with the trust system. If you are trusted, you are trusted with merits too. Knowing too well you may not play the hide and seek game with your alt on merit issuance.
I am of the opinion that lower ranking member(s) who is able to produce a few quality posts, can be trusted and has a decent history of smerit allocation should benefit evenly because they are the future of bitcointalk. Thank you!
There are merit threads by merit sources all over Beginner and Help board to help newbies rank up. Getting 10 merits to rank up to member is not difficult. The merit system isn't designed to oppress newbies