So I'm not sure what the solution would be, but I had a bad player experience with this.
Just did the Fort of Fortune in a two player sloop - got sunk loading up the loot, and just after we respawned in a new ship to go and get it back; we got a server merge.
Went back to the fort and it was all gone. We're talking a nearly emptied Fort of Fortune and a reaper lvl 5 grind of loot in the water when we got sunk.
Again, not mad that we lost it to players, but it sucked that we lost the opportunity to go back because of server merging. I don't really know if/how this could be addressed, but it was a solid downer to the game session and made us both go 'oof dunno if I want to play after that'.
Which isn't the intention of a server merge, and just a bad player experience.
However i have noticed previously that loot near your ship that is on an island will remain while merging, so I assume there is a system in place? Just not extending over much distance.
Anyway, food for thought.
