I do still have the opinion that rank is pretty much meaningless.
It has become artificially meaningful when merit was not existing yet and campaign managers decided a way to differentiate the users with a better chance for better posts from the rest (and pay them better).
This being said, many newcomers who want to earn money on the forum want merit solely to get to the ranks accepted in various campaigns (or get paid better).
For them rank is far from meaningless. Instead merit is just a tool.
That's why I have a lot of respect for those of you that have earned it, and by no means am I bashing on the idea that earning merit is worthless. My point was mainly aimed at rank, rank is something that you could've got by simply posting on the forum, at least before merit was a thing. That isn't all that meaningful to me.
Still, merit is awarded in a rather discretionary manner (not entirely, but we all know that posts can still get missed or not seen by enough merit sources), getting some posts overly merited and some under-merited.
In the last year the things got much better, but in the past the merit sources were probably not enough and the number of un-/under-merited posts was significant. (Maybe they still are in certain areas which I've missed).
theymos, punish me to the fullest, throw me at the very end of the line. I'm ready. 
I'll be honest, it would be slightly funny in a slightly sadistic way . I've done the math last year and I don't know it now, but I think that we are pretty close to that.
@Ratimov I have a feeling that you've done something very bad in a past life
