I do kind of wish there was some sort of requirement to post in the bounty section. I'm not normally one for too many restrictions, and I know theymos has shown his disdain for newbie jail in the past, which in the most part I would agree. However, the bounty section is absolutely crazy. I'd like to see something like earn x amount of merit in y period, and you can post there.
If they need merit for being able to post in bounty section, they have to make post in other boards and it's possible that we will see more spam in the forum. It's also possible we see more abuse of the merit system.