It's not necessarily about needing to read more topics. I think it's more psychological -- we may just lower our standards and find posts that are worthy of merit in the same topics we already read, even if they don't initially stand out. Personally, when I open a thread and see 10 replies, I already have a sense of which members are likely to have written a merit-worthy post. I often skip straight to their replies.

This naturally lowers the chances for other posters to get recognized, especially newer or less-known members. I doubt I'm the only one who does this !!  I'm sure many of us subconsciously skip posts by people we don't recognize.

Another (possibly controversial) suggestion: what if we disabled the ability to receive merit for users who don't participate in the merit system themselves?

For example, and I'll use Satoshi here, since he's a safe mention and won't show up to complain  . I often hesitate to merit posts from users who never send merit to others. Merit is a scarce asset, and giving it to someone who is unlikely to redistribute it feels like a missed opportunity to keep the system in check.