Before Merit system many users (not only Newbies) were complaing that they were tagged as shitposters by DT members. And then Meta was full of basic questions about ranks, activity, how to upload signature, avatar, where to find Bitcointalk UID and etc.
The merit system is concerned not only to newbies. Actually, it's not a problem. In my opinion, the merit system is a good thing.
Let's assume that the earliest users mined this forum as a blockchain. At the end of 2017 a lot of new users registered here. In other words, the hashrate was increased, therefore the difficulty of mining (of ranking up) was increased too.
I would prefer to use analogy with Bitcoin Cash airdrop. These who had Bitcoins during snapshot received free BCH. These users who had Bitcointalk account higher than Newbie received free airdroped Merit and sMerit according to their rank. Just one difference - after airdrop everyone can buy BCH if they want, while only legitimate way to get Merit - earn it by making quality posts