What a waste of merit points, and an indication of a lack of understanding about the purpose of merit points. I thought they were to encorage an improvement in the quality of posting.
I am sure you have good intentions , But why give a sleep account merit ! It would be waste of merit and could be more helpful to give them to people that really in need of them and deserve them.
Why would theymos changing a value be a "waste"? It's as simple as theymos setting his merit to 21M. Done.
There's no sMerit that would have be used for that and those Merits wouldn't exist and thus are not "taken away" from anyone else.
It's a fun little detail. Why does your postcount show leet when you reach 1337 posts? It's a waste of programming, nobody gains something from it.
Or maybe easter eggs are what makes things interesting. Small details that don't make a huge difference over all, but go a long way.
I jokingly suggested that, and think it's unlikely theymos would agree/set them to this value. Though I'd still find it a nice little gesture.
The argumentation against however, I don't really understand.