you earn Token not Merit
And I don't think this will work. Most bounty participants have 0 merit, because their posts aren't worth it. I'm also pretty sure many bounty participants use many different accounts, and if they have higher hevels, they have sMerit to give. That would mean they can merit their alt accounts, to earn more tokens from the Token pool.
no merit = no gain.
Concerning the problem that someone who has several alts distributes merit to himself, yes it's a risk but it is also a risk for him to get caught and red-trusted.
I would say status-quo.
I can also imagine defining rules. for example: merit > 10 on a post will be count with a maximum value of 10 merit.