I think everyone gets a bit of a rush when they get a merit, I can't really comment on the ranks because I'm already at the top but I don't know if people are focusing too much on ranks and merits and less on providing discussion, insight and quality... If you're active here and interested in the currency you should be able to earn no matter (if you have any posts of good quality).
They are really forgetting the true essence of this forum if they continue on focusing about getting a higher rank instead of giving relevant and meaningful discussion or thoughts. Ranks are somehow important because there are newbies here that who have a prior knowledge about bitcoin and they are not completely ignorant and you will see in the quality of their post that they wants to learn more.
But anyway, if I understand what you're trying to say after reading it like 5 times: a person halving a "newbie" rank doesn't automatically mean that the person actually knows nothing about Bitcoin. Rank only helps us determine how long a certain person has been here, and how much has he/she contributed throughout his/her time here.
But rank's main use is for us to know who are the most trusted and most professional in terms of this forums. By that, we can ask for help on them if we want to know something that we don't know in this forum. But lower rank doesn't mean that you can't help other people with your opinions.