Your assertion that "If you are a legendary member, you need to have received a lot of merit, 1000 if you are a new era newbie, or a minimum of 500 if you created your account prior to the implementation of the merit system" is highly misleading, especially when followed by "If you have received a lot of merit in the past, you are likely to receive a lot of merit in the future, assuming you maintain your posting habits" because the airdrop was not given for post quality and the vast majority of those airdropped legendaries are not likely to receive a lot of actual earned merit. That's all what the data shows.

I don't have a personal bias against legendaries, just stating the plain fact that most of them are shit. Sorry this hurts your fee-fees.

You are just spilling out the facts and there is nothing like getting hurt in it man.For instance i have come across many senior,full,hero and even legendary members who have not received single merit in the past 120 days or even from the introduction of the merit system.The reason behind this is simple they have not made any quality post and are simply running in sheep race of shitposting or spamming up.The merits are simply awarded to you for your effective contributions to the forum and quality posts and sooner or later you realise this fact the forum would be witnessing more ranked up members.

But still lot are lagging behind it and simply want to complete their signature campaign requirements and writing up anything without reading above discussion and just want to write what is in their mind and think they would be awarded with merits which is wrong pre-assumptions.Simply treat this as discussion forum and learn from it and reflect the same in your posts.

No doubt when you have good amount of merits and some name on the forum you could help it into getting more merits but if you look closely at the post history of that members you would come to know they are already making up some quality posts on thr forum.How do they get up such merits like 3000,2000,6000 and even 8k merits on the account and are recognised by every member of the forum? The answer to this is simple that they have made best and useful contribution to the forum in past and currently also which has helped them to reach that levels.You would not merit any post if there is nothing much of important in it so human nature of exchanging merits is fine because they are going to the deserved ones.

Here's a great example of why Legendary members receive more merit: this post, made by stompix, was the only one in that thread about El Salvador citizens protesting the legal tender status of bitcoin.  The thread was started by a Jr. Member and in the OP he said this:

That's part of the long post he wrote, but his thinking shows a clear lack of understanding of other people's point of view, and to me it just sounds like a blindly pro-bitcoin stance.  And if you read the other replies in the thread, most of the replies made by members below Legendary adopt the same "those protesters are wrong" attitude.  And there's this part of the post made by Ucy, which baffled me:

That statement is almost elegant in its symmetry of wrongness; bitcoin's volatility is frequent, though perhaps not in the last month, and fiat currencies are so much less volatile than fiat that the comparison is just ridiculous.  Ucy makes some good posts, but this one is just....wow.

I tend to think lower-ranked members are younger in general, and that might not be a really bad assumption.  Higher-ranked members  have been on the forum longer, and they were obviously younger when they registered.  The older you get and the more experience you have with bitcoin, in life, and on the forum, hopefully the more insight your posts will have--and I think that's true in a lot of cases.  But for lower-ranked members, I don't think they have as much experience in those areas in general (and I stress that, in general), and their posts reflect that. 

Add to that the fact that most newcomers only want to use the forum to make money (in general), and you get the result that most of their posts are made with minimal effort and thought.  Hence, they don't earn as many merits.

Who is a Legend?

Merriam-webster dictionary defined a Legend as "a famous or important person who is known for doing something extremely well".

Oxford concised dictionary says "a Legend is a very famous person, especially in a particular field, who is admired by other people ".

With the above two definitions, we should be convinced that.
1. Legends receiving the highest number of merits is normal, besides they also give the highest number of merits.
2. Legends always answering the first question is normal because they are most knowledgeable about crypto and also the forum experiences. They do it extremely well according to Webster.
3. According to Oxford, Legends are admired by other people. How can you admire someone without meriting him?

I said it before that anything to be asked for is consideration or mercy,(which some Legendary members are doing, by deliberately giving more merit to lower-ranked members). If due process is followed, more than 50% merits will always go to the Legends and it's normal. It should be a motivation for me and other lower-ranked members. Yes, because if senior members for instance recieve more merits than Legendary members, no one will practically work to earn a Legendary rank. The highest should remain the best.

I cannot tell if you replied based on what you conceived in your mind or you replied to what I posted. If it's the former, your reply is fine and beautiful, but if it's the later, it's either you didn't read the post or you deliberately tend to off point.
When I opened the thread NEWBIES! Earn your first MeritI didn't believe how you tackled that thread and I was forced to lock it. Coming here to speak on same matter is a gross hypocrisy.
However, my pattern of giving merit has not defeated the forum rules and besides I am a new Eva newbie striving to grow. You are an established member and well known in the forum. How much have you helped NEWBIES? We have seen the threads of many Legendaries like @Ognasty @Ratimov @DdmrDdmr @The Pharmacist @CryptopreneurBrainboss, the likes of @Pmalek @LoyceV @Fillippone to mention but a few helping newbies. But I couldn't find any of yours.
I went through your merit status and I observed you only give merits when any of  three things happens. But I'll reserve that for now.
So, you are in a better position to help newbies. Do it now and wait for me to grow to atleast Sr. Member and see what I will do.
Just a few newbies I merited, @Ratimov listed my name with them suspecting they are my alts. This cannot happen to you no matter how many newbies you merit. It's a clear indication that you are in a better position to do so than myself. Thanks!

The most of the threads are shilled with the same magical thoughts and such threads are filled with spam posting and keep repeating the same content sometimes even in same words.The main thing is you don't need to write long wall of plain text which have not any relevant information about the post by @OP and just want to complete signature campaign requirements but even if you write up quality post in 3-4 lines only then it's merit worthy.The legendary members are doing the same thing like they are providing you with the correct information summarised in short not posting anything without any valid proofs so they got merits for it instead of newbies.

I think I know what you are saying. People come and ask similar questions and have the same problems as other members had in the past. Those who know how to solve them offer some guidance and are rewarded with merits. Although the problems are somewhat similar, those who ask the questions and need help, still expect and hope someone will help them. It's an ongoing process and I don't think those individuals shouldn't be rewarded with merits just because 5 months ago someone else had that same problem. If merits were to be awarded only for brand-new ideas and thoughts, we would hardly see any kind of distribution.

I guess many people distrust newbies. They think they are alt accounts of other members or maybe banned members who came back. It's strange to see that someone who says he is brand-new to crypto knows some peculiarities about the forum from a few years ago, understands trust, the merit system, etc. That's one reason why the things you mentioned might be happening.

If you are an expert in a field you work in, you will establish a reputation in the community. If you know how to solve technical problems, you deserve to be rewarded. On this forum, that reward is merits. It's not a monetary reward, but a sign of recognition and gratitude.

Every person is different I guess. I can sleep safer at night knowing that if I have certain doubts or questions, the likelihood that I will get the help I need in those sections is high. I think that is more important than anything else this forum has to offer. Not because I am planning to mess things up or because I am careless, but bad things happen sometimes. But that's just me. You might have other priorities.

It would be great if more sub-boards had that importance. But it's not my fault they don't. Look at the crap being discussed in the Altcoin Discussion board or most of the topics in Bitcoin Discussion.

Legendary Member Ranks are really doing their jobs perfectly.But as a Member rank there are many users who trie to help others as much as they learnt.
Hope One day I will be a Legendary in Forum.
Again I want to give respects to hard working and helpful Legendary ranks from the core of my heart.