My objection is that the use of merit to justify rewards typically seen as an objective measure.

We should carefully identify the reasons for measuring and rewarding a thing - like "we reward excellent code with commit rights", rather than that we "reward people based on merit". The word itself is fraught, as is the philosophy of meritocracy. It's used as a broad brush for many different meanings.

We should just be specific, and say what it is that we are rewarding.