In the beginning, the idea was good, and the goal was to push members who lack a small number of merits for a rank upgrade. A little stimulus for younger members is perfectly fine and proof that the forum is not as rigid as newcomers perceive it to be.
As in everything, every good idea turns into its opposition at some point, so this thread has become a place where users beg for merit and possibly congratulations on rank-up. So instead of being a place where members will prove their quality, the opposite happened.
I will not blame it on the newbies but blame it on old members because you know how this forum works. If someone post about the little amount of merit needed to rank up, as an old member, you do not need to merit what he posted but just go throughout his topics and posts history and check for posts that are worth giving merit. If he is qualified, you can merit the person's quality posts and also merit what he posted here if you feel like. For those that are not worth it, do not merit the their posts.
It is good to know that some people will abuse this and use alt to also apply which is very bad. If you know their alt and they are spamming, tag them and their alts. I think anyone that is posting good will continue to earn merit even if they do not post on his thread. This is what these people do not know. If I were them, I will not bother to apply because I know I will earn far more than the merits needed for the next rank.
What I notice and observed is that you can't use your years of experience to the space to those who were just coming to the system, it might looks bored to you but believe me or not, at your early beginning you might not be this smart knowledgeable enough to handle things over here. The things is, when they will began to grow here the will gain the knowledge requires and can easily be earning merits as you said, but do not forget that everyone started little maybe probably not when meritocracy has been implemented. Best thing should be that Merits are flowing in and out, so others can help another who is also close to their ranks, like I know from my presence around here my perspective towards the cryptocurrency industry has changed I do not think the way I does before that is why it's always important to remain the reading type that becoming the noisy type would keeps jumping from board to board in search of Merits to rank up to their next rank.
I come in Peace to see the next rank.