The thread you linked to was the thread where merit was announced for the first time. In the first week or two after merit was created, it was given much more liberally because of the initial airdrop. You can quite clearly see this from the merit data graphs created by various members of the forum which I have no doubt you haven't looked at. Using that thread as an example is misleading at best. You can equally go in to any ANN thread and see newbies being merited for simply reporting their Facebook posts.
If you want to earn merits, try posting something a bit more insightful than: