Keep in mind that vas majority of legendary members became legendary before merit was introduced. And back then you only needed activity.
Nowadays its much harder to rank up due to merit requirements, and with good reason tbh
Thats true. So some of the members are legendary by default, and Im glad that I didnt go that way, cause it will lead me to a lazy approach to gain merits and become an active user. So Im proud and applause those users who rank up by merits, you deserved the glory. But of course theres already exceptional users whom became legendary even after merit implementation and still gaining tons of merit due to their contributions.