I doubt if it is harder for a legendary rank to earn merit because since they have already achieved that rank, their posts will not be seen as someone who wants to farm/fish merits but most posts of those lower ranks are basically seen as a way to farm merits. However, merits are being given to quality posts so whether you are a legendary or a newbie, if you make quality posts there are members and merit sources who will come across your posts and give them merits. Perhaps, a legendary member still needs merits because there are signature campaign managers that gives more attention to profiles that earns merit regularly when they want to hire campaign participants.
No need to doubt it, just look at the statistics. Low-ranked members are sent plenty of merit to rank up, but if Legendary members aren't in a certain circle, it becomes very difficult for them to earn merit.
Even in this case, you earned merits even though you didn't read the OP. I told you the criteria were written in the OP and I didn't receive any, but you did receive merit.
I think that to get merits, you post in areas that you are interested, and perhaps you will notice what other members are interested in, so then if members share interests, they are more likely to send smerits.
Since merit sources are not evenly distributed in the forum, no matter how good your posts are or how much you contribute to the forum, you may not receive merit. Many users write about threads they are not interested in just to earn merits. But not everyone does this.
