And if the administrator trusts them to do this, then so be it. Another way is to apply for the position of source of merit, and in the future, upon successful consideration of your request, distribute merits as you consider objective. 
It would have been good if thrymos is selecting new merit source, but he is nit taking anyone since meany years ago, anyone that is worth it and applying for merit source are nit choosing, which are all reputed members on this forum.You can also earn those 49 merits from him if you really want to, all you have to do is to learn how to speak and write “German Duetsch” and that way you can join his discharge and also earn the 49 merits you so much desired that made you create an entire disguised as trust related thread, and if you can’t learn it then you might as well mind your business and continue doing what you’ve been doing.
He does nit need to, if he continue to post good, he will continue to earn merit and rank up. One thing about merit system that people should know is that it is perfect against low quality posts and spans, but no totally perfect because of exactly this complain, favoritism.