Snip.
No, I don't think there is a specific consensus on how we rate them, which means you have the right to spend sMerit/ no spend and that's up to you. Some people are known to not care about the merit system and some may not be interested, and again that's up to them.
Pmalek had discussed this matter before, he made a topic and revealed some reasons.
Top 200 Active Members who have earned most Merits but have sent 0 sMeritsI can think of a couple of reasons:
1. They dont care about receiving/sending Merits at all and dont want to be part of it.
2. They dont understand how the Merit system works, thinking every time they send a merit, their count will decrease by one.
3. They cant find/dont think there is anything worth meriting.
4. They are afraid of sending Merits since there are many abuses and dont want to get on someone's radar.
But I can think of another reason that might be the 5th reason and that. Forum contributors who left the forum before the merit system was introduced such as satoshi will no longer be active just to spend their sMerit.
What Pmalek discusses in this topic is only a small number of the top active users who have earned the most Merit but have sent 0 sMerits to other users, some of whom have left the forum. Without them there are still many other users with a high concern for spending sMerit where it deserves.
Those who leave the forum with the number of sMerits they have will not reduce the number of sMerit, the circulation of merits continues even without them.