Many of us feel that there is a potential to only earn merit from the merit sources here in the local board when you start a topic, not when you engage in another topic or discussion that has already been started. I dey see many topics wey engagements suppose dey, but as we plenty for here, engagements go cun dey few. E nor too good like that.
This is your observation and it is the truth, most merits by the merit sources are given to the topics and not replies. This is not strange though because the mod is a busy person that may not have much time to read through all the replies and give merits to those that deserve it. He is not JJG that read and write thousands of words in minutes.
This is the reason we need more merit sources in our local and I hope Theymoshelp us