Problem is, there is a lack of even an average newbies so what will high ranking members do when there's lack of decent newbies other than share the merit among themselves.
Supply and demand.The merit sources don't share the merits amongst themselves in your above senario. The less merits to share around, the harder it is to obtain those merits should equate to higher quality posts to obtain the fewer merits on offer.
Less merits = better, quality posts.Quick workaround for your request could be made with BPIP extension or script, if someone is willing to make more pseudo-ranks like Veteran or Elite, maybe even Retired for inactive members.
BPIP's greasemonkey script already shows banned and inactive. Someone else made a script to show posts reported. No doubt a script could be created for "Fantasmigroical" if need be.
OP: Why do you want to break your arm patting yourself on the back with a new rank?