Quality ratings for each post are highly subjective, that's the point. But in the end, getting merit depends on how readers or merit providers (user) pay attention to the meaning and purpose of our posts, even if they consider them ordinary or general posts. It is always difficult to reach the standards set by others so that we can merit from them, so I personally tend to post whatever suits my taste with constructive elements in mind.
Merit will indeed be subjective to who and what they post, but still with better quality.
And the most affecting thing is also where you are, if you are in the right place with people you know then it will be easier to get merit,
but if you are quite unfamiliar with that place or sub forum that makes people rarely give merit, of course no matter how good it is, there will be no merit given.
I really know about how difficult merit is if the goal of our post is to get merit, but merit is easy to earned when our mindset about merit is easy. We will get merit when our posts are meaningful and useful for other users, including technical posts or some other general knowledge related to forum or others.
Now it is difficult, especially if the posts are just monotonous and there is no progress. I am more interested in threads that discuss real events experienced by someone in the crypto world and some valid data exposures, so I can also explain the data I get.
Some of the threads that I made and really useful get the merit they deserve and are also not threads but works that participate in contests and giveaways that are often done such as carving pumpkins, making pizza are potential activities to get merit.