I have always been against the whole merit system because we see a lot of people selling merits and it also sends out an incorrect message to the beginners as they start focussing more on merits than learning.
Shouldn't you be against the misuse of the system rather than being against the system itself? If people buy or sell merits and abuse the system, it's not the fault of the system and we shouldn't dislike the system but we should be against those people and their actions. Some people misuse everything, even things that can't be used negatively are used for negative actions by some people, but that doesn't mean we should be against those things.
The merit system has helped the forum greatly, it has made the life of spammers hell, there used to be account farmers in the past who would create multiple accounts, spam all around the forum, gain enough activity, rank up their accounts, and then sell them. It was a sort of business for many, and the merit system stopped that. Even if people misuse the system, they can't do it to that extent now.