This is kind of indirectly implemented already with the merit
stats page. You can check the most merited users of all time, and recently. As well as a few other statistics related to merit.
I don't think that has the same effect I'm looking for. From the merit stats page I can see who has been merited recently, but that doesn't help me when I am scrolling through dozens of posts in "altcoin discussions" looking for hidden gems and actual thoughtful analysis. I think my idea would make it so someone can start in the topic they are already interested in and clearly see the quality posters as they browse. At the moment I have to follow good posters and hope they decide to post in a topic I am interested in. Also, recently merited and most merited don't show consistency of quality posts. Maybe someone wrote their first good post ever or they got 50 merits all at once for some infographic about the merit system and the rest of their posts are garbage...