There is a huge misunderstanding about "the merch line was bad". Having to wait a few hours is to be expected, sure. For fanfest, people who were lined up at doors open were still not taken care of by doors closed on day one. Half-way through the day they stationed Staff at the end of the line to prevent people from getting in line anymore, then handed out tickets to those still in the line when the first day was over.

Day two there was no "merch line". If you didn't have a ticket from day one, you weren't even able to attempt it. So trying to be pragmatic and waiting until the crush was gone just meant you got absolutely nothing. The merch line was abysmal, and a lot of us are very very burned by not being able to buy anything as fans who (in my case) spent several thousand dollars to attend.