Has anyone gotten rewarded from merit award program?

https://benefits.calhr.ca.gov/state-employees/engagement-resources/merit-award-program/?hl=en-US

I have been working for the state for quite a long time, and I see processes that have been in place that seemed to be grandfathered in that no one seems to question. I'm curious has anyone actually been rewarded for proposing an idea that got adopted and received a cash payout from the merit award program?

Additionally, I've also noticed certain departmental processes that just don't make sense, and I don't understand why we are paying IT contractors such exorbitant amounts of money to handle them. Especially now, some of the scripting can literally be vibe coded. Have anyone ever tried to vibe code certain IT solutions and gotten rewarded?