It depends on what sort of poster you are. It's harder for people to farm accounts just by making lazy contributions because now you need a certain amount of merit to move through the ranks. However, it still takes a long time to rise through the ranks and most people should be able to get sufficient merit during that time so poor posters will struggle but good quality poster should probably breeze through.
Just to put merit into perspective. I've received 78 merit so far.
Most of them where in a handful of "donations" where generous users gave 5 or even 20 merit for my already existing FAQ, which must probably be considered a "top-quality" post far above the norm (I'm not bragging here, it's just a FAQ sticky post that's been in the making for a while).
Leaving my FAQ aside, in reality, I've received some 20 merit or so within a month.
And that's definitely not very much when you compare that to the traditional "Activity" which grew by 14 every 2 weeks.
Conclusion: I think it's become a lot tougher for newbies to rank up.
Even I find it hard to generate merit (which I only need for smerit to give to contributors in my FAQ-thread).
We can't seriously expect all newbies to write sticky-worthy FAQs
For reference, I've highlighted my merit,
Green is "real" merit for general posts.
Red is merit for my FAQ.
Blue ist my special donation.
Received in the last 120 days
Today at 03:36:48 PM: 1 from tyz for Re: Bitcoin & die Steuer - FAQ
Today at 10:14:17 AM: 1 from Crazydome80 for Bitcoin & die Steuer - FAQ
Today at 12:10:46 AM: 1 from twbt for Re: Bitcoins vermehren mit BTC-Packages von USI-Tech
March 01, 2018, 08:40:51 PM: 1 from twbt for Re: Bitcoin & die Steuer - FAQ
March 01, 2018, 05:10:09 PM: 1 from Micky25 for Re: Bitcoin & die Steuer - FAQ
February 28, 2018, 12:00:23 AM: 1 from Norihiro for Re: Get Donator status by donating 10 BTC
February 27, 2018, 02:00:32 AM: 1 from Foxpup for Re: Is the Merit System Generating Enough Merits?
February 26, 2018, 08:38:16 PM: 7 from TMAN for Re: Is the Merit System Generating Enough Merits?
February 26, 2018, 04:09:57 AM: 1 from d5000 for Re: Der Aktuelle Kursverlauf
February 17, 2018, 12:50:56 AM: 1 from Scheede for Bitcoin & die Steuer - FAQ
February 15, 2018, 04:46:49 PM: 2 from yxt for Bitcoin & die Steuer - FAQ
February 14, 2018, 08:27:21 PM: 1 from twbt for Re: Bitcoin & die Steuer - FAQ
February 13, 2018, 02:07:20 AM: 1 from DarkStar_ for Re: Too much censorship going on here.
February 12, 2018, 07:32:16 PM: 1 from bill gator for Re: Too much censorship going on here.
February 12, 2018, 06:57:11 AM: 1 from vegascoinpool for Re: Get Donator status by donating 10 BTC
February 10, 2018, 10:30:12 PM: 1 from bennana for (Deleted/Off-limits/Ignored)
February 08, 2018, 05:03:52 PM: 1 from zauce for Re: Finanzamt Bonn: Handel mit Bitcoin/Kryptowährung voll umsatzsteuerpflichtig
February 08, 2018, 02:09:46 PM: 1 from twbt for Re: Bitcoin & die Steuer - FAQ
February 05, 2018, 07:43:49 AM: 1 from B4RF for Bitcoin & die Steuer - FAQ
February 04, 2018, 05:10:03 PM: 1 from IIOII for Re: Wer hat Erfahrungen mit dem Verein "Frei Leben"?
February 04, 2018, 02:08:40 PM: 1 from y2j89 for Re: Wer hat Erfahrungen mit dem Verein "Frei Leben"?
February 02, 2018, 04:39:56 PM: 20 from shorena for Bitcoin & die Steuer - FAQ
February 01, 2018, 10:37:36 PM: 1 from bauchemie for Re: Meine Erfahrung mit ProTact GmbH (vorher ProTact UG)
February 01, 2018, 07:46:13 PM: 1 from 5tift for Re: Der Aktuelle Kursverlauf
February 01, 2018, 07:16:58 PM: 1 from bitcoincidence for Re: Der Aktuelle Kursverlauf
February 01, 2018, 06:35:51 PM: 1 from hirngespenst for Re: Der Aktuelle Kursverlauf
January 30, 2018, 11:31:33 PM: 1 from twbt for Bitcoin & die Steuer - FAQ
January 29, 2018, 10:46:52 PM: 5 from phantastisch for Bitcoin & die Steuer - FAQ
January 27, 2018, 04:09:51 PM: 20 from 600watt for Re: Wette 600Watt/elrippo BTC ATH 2017 €4000