Merges are usually a big activity booster atleast for a while.
When we did a reformation with Risen to Merciless we had 24/7 people online for 2 weeks and then it got way more quiet.
This actually made some of the inactive players come back for some fun time with this fresh "breath". On both sides. It was indeed a good thing for these 2 communities to become one. For cRPG too, even more players online.
Ok yeah for sure, I agree it can help bring back disinterested old players. That doesn't necessarily mean the cRPG player base is expanding, at all.
As you've mentioned it brings veteran players online for 'at least a while'. Whilst over the course of these last few weeks, we have seen a rise in cRPG players- I doubt they would last in this community with the issues raised by Enver in his thread (will post link). Which is a shame.
Pertaining to banner balance and clan stacking. It does effect the new players as well, at least to me it would. I imagine as a new player it's very difficult to come to grasp with this game- a very steep learning curve. Now imagine trying to even CONTEND against the 'veteran players team' all stacked into one clan. As a new player, fresh out of download, your initial cognition isn't "oh ill join a clan and get better" it's;
"This game looks fun, I'm excited to do all the things I've seen in the youtube videos/tutorials. Oh wait, no I cant because I need to be slaughtered continuously (levelling up) for 100 hours with a relatively low gain (x1), and additionally endure a server with racist and abusive remarks. Oh I can join a clan? Why would I want to join a clan i'm not even sure if I like this game? Oh wait yeah that's right, I can go play Native/another game."
And at least with FAIRLY EQUAL stacked teams on both sides (less of each clan), the 'steamroll' doesn't happen as often.
Now i'm not saying this is 100% true for all new players, because that would be a very silly thing for me to do. But I can at least speak for the players that aren't really interested in gaming, like myself, who aren't here to grind and win but just to have fun and want to pick up a game and play it- I guess I was lucky that I bumped into Ramses who taught me the ins and outs 30 seconds after I joined my first server, or else I wouldn't have been here!
I digress, sorry for going slightly off topic but hopefully you can understand my thinking with this.
