In terms of bounty, yes, some bounties do not pay out or underpay. I used to chase airdrops but I dont even do that anymore because a lot of them are just scams that try to get your personal information. In terms of merits, I feel you. However, I feel like getting to 10 merits is not too hard to do. If you catch some apparent scammers or write quality posts, people will throw 1 or 2. Of course, getting it to next merit milestones is much harder. I dont expect to get 50 or 100 merits anytime soon. However, only downside about not having enough merit is honestly signature bounty comapign.