There are no rules about merit distribution. Merit source (just as a non-merit source) can give merits whenever they want and for whatever reason they want and that in itself is the major flaw in the merit system.
I am no fan of the merit system because it is open to abuse and because creating a two-tier system where there are merit sources and non-merit sources, an unnecessary division between members has been created and that is why it should be reformed.
I can really bet that if merit source merit posts with the community allocated sMerits like the way some other users who awards merit by the quota they gets sMerits by received merits, I think it maybe improper because everyone is sure of having favorite fans in the forum which then, can lead to recycling whereas, the community sMerits won't circulate and meriting system won't be really fair.
But if I may ask, in your opinion, to what system should this be reformed to enable the merits flow effectively? Because I have thought so far but could not come with anything different apart still leaving it up to human decision just as already, we have merit sources doing the jobs.
I also believe that even if Theymos decides to take the meriting tasks upon himself, we as human will still feel unsatisfied.
Rightly, my obligation here is not really pointing that the merit sources are not spreading the community sMerits accordingly but curious to know about how they picks those posts being merited with a prior of serving the entire community irrespective of the board section they are assigned to.