You will get merit if the quality of your post is really decent, meaning that without applying anywhere you will also get it because people will appreciate your quality, not your wishes. The merit system is useful for assessing the quality of user posts, but not all posts will be rewarded with merit because the distribution of merit is very subjective among users. So you just need to try to post something quality, and I think only that will help you get merit.
Honestly is the best policy and when ever we go er must have a mindset to be honest at all times.and what our forumate did is that he applying for this thread to earn merits at least 5 merits in order to participate in bounty campaign which is not bad at all but hat you said above he's not meet the requirements for this thread which he can not earn merits from Op or from those users who supported this thread.
But for you Op @dansus021 you can post your good and useful threads Here this thread created by @LoyceV for those thread did not earn a good merits .