That's sort of what I'm wondering...  It seems the people who care are literally in merit circles themselves, so I guess they're mad that other people are getting merits?  Maybe merits being earned outside of their circle takes away from them feeling like they can control the trust network?  Maybe they're just broke and participate here for signature campaign funds so that's all they can think about and things like improving the health of members of this forum with a fun Bitcoin related challenge is incomprehensible to them?  Who knows why they have their panties in a bunch.  I have signatures turned off so I don't even see them anyway...  I'd recommend others do the same as opposed to being Karens on the internet and if you care about merits you need to get a life.