Unless they added the ability to merit things that made substantial boosts to character performance no it would not.

Merits like Increase WS dmg x% would be in the same category as Elemental magic damage x% so you'd have to choose or something actually potent, as it stands with the merit system job specific there are only a handful of abilities you actually merit, if you merit anything beyond the ones that give the most benefit chances are you do not actually play nor care for that job.

The only other thing is base stats, of which the main benefit is not having to choose between STR DEX and INT, as VIT and CHR do little to make them more worthwhile merits over the other base stats. That said some of the best peices of gear in the game give up to +15 or more to a single or even several base stats at a time meaning capped stat merits are barely the equivalent of 1 peice of gear.