I have
Merit data (from 13 days ago), which shows only 395 users have earned enough Merit to become Legendary on their own. I never stored profile data, but
BPIP shows 663 Legendary accounts out of the 1000 users with most Activity. That list ends with 1970 Activity, so the full list would be much longer.
Do you mean there are only 395 users with 1000+ merits? I don't understand what you mean 395 have earned enough merits to become legendary. According to BPIP, as you also mentioned, there are much more legendary members with 1000+ merits.