I have to point out that while that result did happen, the reason that Merlyn stepped down, was his own decision to have his initial 1,000,000 experience points removed.

Take a look at Should Perl Gurus (Wall,Schwartz,Christiansen et al) receive mega XP based on who they are

Anyhoo, nice post, Old_Belge - I just wanted to point out that Merlyn choose not to keep his mega XP.