Though I don’t have stats, I think there are users who haven’t posted in the last 4/5 years and among them, there are Legendary, Hero, Sr member and they already have seen the rank when the last time browsed the forum.
Now, if the airdropped merits are taken away, they will someday discover that they aren’t anymore Legendary member while I think the true Legends are the OLD users.
That would be something outrage I think.