In the end if more time is spend quality posting I believe your merit situation will solve itself. Also remember with the new rule a single merit can be a huge deal so spending more time on quality posting vs spamming should create a nice payoff.
this is definitely a must.
the creation of the merit system also made me go and explore more the other sessions of bitcointalk, Meta and serious discussion for example, where I never went,
as well as to come to begginers section more often to try to help.
And figuring out how to add value to the forum sharing good information and tools that can make people's life better.
I still don't see it reflected on my merits earned that much, but I think it may be a matter of time.