Not just the merit givers but as a collective we have to stop teaching them that spamming, sucking up and kissing ass pays otherwise we are sending out the wrong message of encouragement.
Exactly. Those who have to be aware of which posts should receive merits are the merits giver. He is the one who must assess the situation and understand what kind of user he is dealing with.
It would be completely unfair to block an area of the forum from merits, harming users who make a clear effort to write good content for the community.
I already commented on this in another topic, but even in the "Gambling discussion" area, there are topics that deserve merit. Despite noting that few merits are distributed in this area. This is a good example that the solution does not involve depriving an area of the forum of merits.
When there is a lot of spam in an area of the forum, what we should do is report it and ask the moderators to delete it. It shouldn't be asking to end merits.