Merging would be a short term solution but a long-term mistake. The players who don't play but still have this game installed on their PC far outnumber those who still play. However, you can't assume they're not part of the server any more. Way too early to assume that. They *may* come back if the battle engine is successful and the PVE content is a hit, and the new job system is great. And they may come back in force. Plus, you have the PS3 release coming up, which might boost the server population by 50% or more.

Merging the servers is only a good decision if everyone's assuming FFXIV will continue to underperform. Therefore, if we're going to merge we might as well just stop.