As a user who has experienced what it's like to be a novice after the merit system was introduced, I also feel that users have to lower quality standards to submit merits. But actually it depends on who does it regardless of the rank of the recipient. The bottom line is post quality, but actually you might have a hard time finding newbie who really deserve help as most of them are not newbie but alt from high ranking members [they are merit conscious from the start] and that's the problem.
The existing system is quite flexible, but in the end only the user will determine how he can get out of his comfort zone about writing quality. There are thousands of users who only make posts to fulfill the campaign's weekly quota, they don't care about quality but really care about rankings and merit. This is the weirdest thing I've ever experienced as a bounty hunter and I honestly can't get as much merit as I see on users like you due to the very obvious difference in post quality.
Actually I also want to be like them who can post something quality, constructive and informative, but that's something I'm still having a hard time doing so far. I try, but sometimes I have to ignore some opinions of people who think it's something bad. Hopefully one day I can be like you who managed to get merit and rank up to a higher rank to reach Legendary.