I've suggested that smerit automatically be distributed based on activity. The higher ranked, more active members would get more smerit than the lower ranks; this does not duplicate the activity value, as that is beneficial to the giver, while smerit is beneficial only to the receiver. I have no ideas about the formula needed - that can be discussed
The Merit system was introduced to reduce spam, including spam from account farmers. What you're proposing would give account farmers all the sMerit they need to rank up by spamming, and I don't think anyone wants to go back there.
I agree.
If anything, we could do with a merit system that discourages spam even more than now.
Just off the top of my head: what about some kind of activity monitoring AI that curates merits? User posts too often, they lose a merit. Post is off-topic or is a generic filler, user loses a merit. User posts something similar to what another user has posted, lose another merit.
That might encourage actually reading through the thread and making quality unique posts.