New servers are not negotiable. They are going to happen, none of us is going to stop that. It is therefore pointless to discuss them. They are going to happen and always were. We could just as well discuss about why the sun won't stop shining. Pointless.
With merges being possible again, however, new servers aren't really a problem anymore.
I do not see how you can say new servers are not a problem because mergers are possible. I am sure I am not the only player who joined a new server because of the bonuses - faster ships, recruiting, extra resources from mines - which many of the new servers were offering. But NOT ONE of the target servers for US is a bonus server. To me, that is a problem. Why in the world would I ever join another new server knowing that at any time, the features I signed up for can be whisked away in the next merge?