Governor wrote:
Roughly half of our DRKs are without those merit points, many of whom are continuously at the top of the damage charts for those kills
As Fid pointed out earlier, merits wouldn't really matter. Last Resort is functioning as it does out of era, meaning it always grants roughly 15% Job Ability haste and each merit grants another 2%~, so you reach 25% at 5/5.
The reason your unmerited drks are able to keep up with merited drks is because the delay cap (delay -80% from all sources) would kick in just from decent gear haste, magic haste, & the base JA haste from Last Resort.
e.g.: Capped amount of haste a decently geared drk wielding 1h with buffs
should get is roughly 21~% +43.75~% =
64%What an unmerited drk using kclub & last resort gets now: 21~% + 43.75%~ + 15%~ =
79~80%Already hitting delay cap, extra merits wouldn't make you attack any faster. That also lines up with what Vik said about it increasing attack speed somewhat but not the whole 25%.