The economic design of the platform is based on a meritocracy,

No.
The design is stake based, otherwise the 'good' posts would earn more than latte art posts by popular people.

Self voting has always been selectively enforced.
The whales get away with it because they have enough stake to crush anybody that calls them on it, but we are aware of those that do it and are seeking remedies.

When we launched there was a 4 post soft limit per day.
Posts 5+ received a diminishing percentage of the rewards voted to them.
That was done away with so that stinc could reap the pool harder.
I think it should come back, but the whales are ambiguous about it.