Who exactly is yearning for mystical before-times? Dom battles have always been expensive. With or without mercing. I don't think anyone expects to go back. Calling a flight cheap for not mercing once in a while is ridiculous. The amount spent on raffles alone is astronomical. That's not even including in-flight programs that drain banks once fodder prices go up. Even if you don't factor mercing into the equation, both of these flight's dom banks are going to be mostly dry afterwards because no one is battling anymore and everyone's hib dens are huge.

Mercing is literally a cash grab for levelers who decided that public buy prices weren't high enough. Why even bother with public buys at all at this point? There's no benefit to sending to them when you can get higher prices for mercing and you get zero raffle tickets. Let's be real. This has nothing to do with whether a flight decides to spend money on mercs or not. It has everything to do with the fact that other flights expect increasingly large payouts for their support and are mad when they don't get it.