There are email notifications as well, but they are general and not customized. I hope that there will be notifications within the same account in the forum instead of using the bot.
So far, bot notification are much more useful than email notification for certain things like merit, mention and quote etc. But email notification also have their uses even when you can't trust bots such as message notification, email change, and password change etc. But of course it would be great if the forum also had more complete notification like it has been possible with bots so far.
Bot notification is more convenient and safe than email notification. I cannot imagine spamming my email with any mention of my username. I don't visit my email often and I don't subscribe to third party newsletter. So, when a mail drops in my box, I know it is for work or other official messages that needs attention and not a forum mention by a random user.
I even want to stop the default pm notification through email.
Then, I do not think that merit notification is necessary. I can always login and see who dropped me merits or messages. But incase someone mentions me in an ongoing conversation or a different board I didn't visit, that's why I activated a bot notification.