I was wondering why all of a sudden we have too much merit topic discussion right after theymos introduced some new people in the merit sources. Adding new sources means that there is no merit rework in his mind, at least at this moment.
From what I have just seen above, Theymos just made little update by removing those who felt so entitled of the merits source and add those who where more active to distribute Merits to those who mostly needed it than leaving it in the hands of those who wouldn't be that active to the community to help out those who needs it.
If you see the merit source applications and those who are awarded the merit sources are mostly from the local boards and they would mostly be supporting their community after getting smerits. For those posters, who aren't active in their local thread, they will still face difficulties getting merits as compared to the local board members. I believe that's one shortcoming of the merit system.