I am against this proposal of removing airdropped merits. It doesn't affect me personally, just as it doesn't affect you, but that's not the point. If a decision was made to introduce this system, which also entails airdropped merits, it seems a bit unserious to make changes to it now. The system works, it is not perfect because perfect doesn't exist.
I doubt that there would be at least 1% of active members who would support such a move even if such a proposal were put to the vote. People are basically very reluctant to be deprived of something they got and I have no doubt that a real rebellion would break out if something like that happened. In addition, if things get out of hand - an option that is already on the table is a complete ban on signature campaigns.
We clearly see that the vast majority of them would not have been able to reach full member if the same rules had been applied to them since the merit system came into force.
There is no doubt that these are members who are completely worthless to the forum in every sense, and they should be prevented from having signatures. The question is how to do it if removing airdropped merits is not a realistic option and the scam is not moderated by the forum?