I detect an overriding sense of jealousy here, apart from the legitimate complaints you have (and you do have some).  If you've been here since 2014, it's obvious why you haven't reached Legendary yet, i.e., you just didn't post enough before the merit system was implemented.  I know you know that, so I'm not sure why you brought it up--though again, I think it's jealousy and/or a feeling of being left behind because of your own inaction.

I'm not sure I entirely agree with you that there are too many Legendary members, but the prestige of that rank has definitely lost a lot of what made it such a thing to shoot for.  On the other hand, for the vast majority of newcomers it's still nearly unattainable.  It'd be nice if Theymos added at least one more rank if not several, but he doesn't seem inclined to do that, so there's not much the community can do.

The state of the forum is truly bad, but I'd say only in certain sections and only if you're not using your ignore list to alleviate some of the frustration.  But I'd also argue that (at least for me) I find it much more tolerable than it was prior to the merit system.  You remember what it was like back then, hopefully.  There were so many blatant account farmers spread out through so many sections it was unreal, and they were the lowest kind of shitposters imaginable.  Right now the quality isn't even close to being as bad as it was back then.