What I'm wondering is how many of these accounts have been hacked or purchased. This particular account seems to have been pretty shady for years now, but there are other older accounts waking up, handing out merits, and/or trying to join signature campaigns. If someone has a hacked account with a high rank, they have those airdropped sMerits which they could easily give to an alt account.
One account I just tagged for being bought or hacked gave out a merit for a post made in 2016, seemingly randomly. I have a very hard time believing this is legit, though I could be wrong--the member he gave the merit to isn't exactly active here anymore.
Anyway even if this crap is happening, airdropped sMerits are going to run out eventually if they haven't already. I do still wonder about sMerits still sitting in inactive accounts that have yet to be hacked or sold.