User blog comment:Piyush Banerjee/Shin DxD 2 discussion/@comment-92.21.29.42-20190623153730/@comment-28884330-20190628014820

@Leglanddu59 How is that relevant at all to anything that I said? If you want to digress in that direction, then I'll humor you. Merit is irrelevant of someone's status or initial conditions for the most part. If someone works, they have merit, and if someone doesn't work, then they have no merit. Simple as that. Issei has merit in several regards, but him having the Boosted Gear is not related at all to his merit, because it was nothing more than a lucky draw when he was born. In contrast, Rias' Balor form is not something inherent to her or something she was born with either, she and Gasper had to work to obtain it, putting both effort and intent, therefore she has merit through which she obtained it. That's how the comparison works.