It stands to reason any ruling class allowed to define the mechanism of handing over power to the next generation will do it via inheritance, hardly any differe

It stands to reason any ruling class allowed to define the mechanism of handing over power to the next generation will do it via inheritance, hardly any different than primogeniture. It's contrary to Lockean political legitimacy which requires the consent of the governed. And it's also contrary to Paine's Rights of Man which expressly argues against aristocracy and hereditary government, which self-evidently a meritocracy would create because there's nothing to prevent it and every incentive to pass down such power only to ones progeny as the next generation of ruling class.