It depends on your local board but some other local board are very generous more than global. Maybe the problem is there's only few merit source available on your local and most your local board user don't spend much posting on your local board, My comments is just an assumption since I don't visit your local board. This is same with my Local Board(Philippines), That's why most Filipino user is aiming to post quality content via global.
If you have a quality post or thread, You can post it's link some global merit thread. They are giving merits if your post is really quality even if its in your Local Board.
Well this is actually some users don't have enough merit most of Merit has been spent in previous years without regaining new merit
Because smerit is limited seniors have to choose which one is most worthy to be awarded. I also don't deny that seniors prefer to share with other seniors from new accounts.