What impression does it make on new members, especially now that Bitcoin is massively being advertised by big names like Blackrock?
I don't give a shit about Blackrock. Their interests are most likely the opposite of my own interests.it seems @OP opened this topic because he received a negative feedback from high ranked user. 
That doesn't make sense, decodx created his account after the introduction of the Merit system, and earned all his Merit by himself.I created LoyceV's deMerit source application in 2018. TL;DR:
Part of the reason I started this thread was to (re)start a discussion about deMerit. I see good points, both in favour and against it.
OP should read that topic.