*Angry Edward Elric noises*
To be fair, from my old recollections of FMA, this is most of the sounds that Ed makes.
APGTE makes it pretty clear that Praes winds up falling prey to the standard failings of "meritocracy" -- entrenched power can ensure that its scions accrue more "merit" and thus perpetuate an aristocracy even if technically anyone can also demonstrate that merit.
The phrase 'upward mobility' and 'meritocracy' are VERY misleading when talking about Praes. Yes, there is the ability to move upward, but 9/10 times it's not because you are better at something useful. It's because you found a way to slit the throat of the person above you without drawing notice, or at least without it being provable that you were the one who did it. And to utterly slaughter anyone who attempts to do the same to you, along with all their family, lovers, servants, and pets.
Especially the pets.
Edit: It reminds me of a story a friend of mine who was a history major told me. For some reason, we were talking about the English colonization of India (Honestly, I have absolutely no idea how we had gotten on that topic. We were in our early twenties, huge nerds, and probably making odd references in the midst of another conversation.) He said that English soldiers stationed there, when proposing toasts when drinking, would make a toast to 'Bloody Wars and Deadly Diseases.' The context for this was that despite the huge presence of the English military, there was a surprisingly small number of officers, leading each officer to control large territories of responsibility. A side product of this was that it was very difficult to move up in the ranks unless the guy on top bought it. So the soldiers used to use this toast in the hopes that their COs would die so they could get promoted.
(Of course, being in our early twenties, huge nerds, somewhat irreverent, and especially ones that enjoyed confusing the hell out of 'normal' people in public, we immediately started using that toast in public whenever we would go out drinking to start the night. There's nothing like watching the dumbfounded faces of bartenders and eavesdroppers at a trendy bar when you give a toast like that with absolutely no context.)
End edit
Then again, that was 'current day' Praes when we see it in story. And while I have no idea 'how' different the Empire is from Roma's time, it's probably a moot distinction.
In terms of people rising on pure merit, rather than backstabbing Prasi politics, sorcery, war crimes, etc. I was under the impression that this was a relatively recent idea in the Empire, with the rise of the current Empress, the Black Knight, and the Calamities. One that is not supported by the old guard, but they bite their tongues because they expected the Empress to be dealt with by someone else. And in the end, the Empress and Black Knight care little about encouraging rising on their merits more so than Black is more focusing on ways to defeat/twist/trick Providence. Black's speech in the chapter entitled 'Madman', I believe, summarizes it best.
He laughed. "Oh, if the heroes deserved their victories against us, I would make my peace with it. But they don't, do they? Your sullen little nemesis gets to swing an angel's feather, while you make do with steel and wiles. That's always the way of it. At the last moment they're taught a secret spell by a dead man, or your mortal weakness is revealed to them or they somehow manage to master a power in a day that would take a villain twenty years to own. Gods, I've even heard of Choirs stepping in to settle a losing fight. The sheer fucking arrogance of it."
The second time I'd ever heard him swear, and it surprised me as much as the last. Teeth bared, he leaned forward.
"None of it is earned. It is handed to them, and this offends me."
"You asked me what I want," Black said. "This once, just this once, I want us to win."
The smile across his face was a cutting, vicious thing.
"To spit in the eyes of the Hashmallim. To trample the pride of all those glorious, righteous princes. To scatter their wizards and make their oracles liars. Just to prove that it can be done."
There was something his eyes burning like coals and embers.
"So that five hundred years from now, a band of heroes shiver in the dark of night. Because they know that no matter how powerful their sword or righteous their cause, there was once a time it wasn't enough. That even victories ordained by the Heavens can broken by the will of men."
Any sort of idea of rising based on true merit is only a byproduct of what Black and the Empress were really trying to do. It's been a while since I've actively read APGtE (I stopped after Book 5 as I wanted to build up more of a backlog than reading it as it came out, and I've never really had time to go back and check. And honestly at this point, I feel like I'd have to restart from scratch to actually remember everything.)
