Therefore, my opinion is that we should not look at how good/bad a user is towards someone individually, but how good he is for the forum as a whole.
Of course, and I can say that it is a real contribution to the forum. His presence on the forum had a positive impact, his willingness to help the forum was expected and appreciated regardless how he reacted to particular individual breaking the rules.
Quality posters will be rewarded, they won't have much trouble getting merit and rankings.
That's how the merit system works so far. Every forum member who makes consistently quality posts then they will get ranked. Sooner or later it's just a matter of time, now you'll also find that some posters don't even have enough activity points to rank up despite having many merit.