I know that the bitcointalk merit system is designed to reward quality posts and improve overall forum content. However, one of the problems I see with this merit system is that even if you make a quality post, if no one sees it or no one wants to give merit, it might be like a normal post. I think that's what OP want trying to discuss. This can be discouraging for users (like me, lol) who put in some effort to contribute but are not getting enough merit.
I agree with you that even if you write a quality post the chance of getting merits on it is low. I have experienced it in the past and till today facing the same issue which is still okay for me with my rank. The problem happens when a newbie is trying to get some merits to rank up, he tries to come up with a good topic/reply but he has to struggle to get merits from the global boards. On the contrary, it is easier to get merits if on local boards as they have dedicated merit sources. I never felt that on my local board merit hoarding is an issue as everyone who has smerits is always distributing it to a quality post. The problem that we are facing is officially retired merits sources which is causing the activity of our local board to go down.