Your post defines you

[bitmover]

There is a slight difference between trust and merits which you both say that "nothing can be done".
Only the DT member red trust has an impact and other trusts feedback do not matter much to the users However any merit given / received has an impact regardless of given by which user on any post.

Almost all the top100 merited users are on DT. There are hundreds of topics in reputation board about all kind of merit abuse and scams

Community is vigilant here. Hardly people will be abusing the merit system unnoticed

[rosezionjohn]

You are unlikely to get banned for shitposts, 

Maybe what you mean is unlikely to get permanently banned. Members can still get banned temporarily for extreme shitposting, I believe it's either seven or fourteen day forum suspension.

It will also be suspicious to anyone if a user will give a merit to a bounty report LOL which is considered a shitpost.

Bounty reports shouldn't be given any merit in my opinion also but I would not consider it a shitpost if it is required by the bounty manager.