I haven't read all 8 pages of the thread, but I read the first and last ones to see if anyone had mentioned the idea that had occurred to me. I've seen “+1 WO merit” mentioned a few times in the thread, as a joke, like many of the posts there. One idea would be to create a sort of WO merit that could only be used there. But given that the problem seems to have been reduced, that theymos doesn't seem to care much about how merits are distributed (as long as they're not sold or anything like that), and that it would have to be technically implemented, I don't think it will happen, but since it occurred to me, I wanted to mention it.
I have to reply to give you my support. Although I see many sources giving 5,10,20+ smerit to posts, my posts can't even get 1. Even when I can reward a meritable post, how much is 1 merit on a post now anyways?
The thing is, merit distribution is relative. Often, someone is given a lot of merit for a post simply to raise their rank. Other merit sources give a minimum of 4 by default to any post they deem worthy. And in the end, there is always some subjectivity in whether or not to give merit to a post, and how much.