Colleges moved away from merit based $$ decades ago. When I went to college there were so many merit based awards and also FA. So you could stack and easily pay especially if you were low income and high achieving. Now, it’s mainly based on FA. Not interested in arguing as that is how it is set up. There are VERY few LARGE merit awards. And many of the awards which are focused on merit also have questions to pinpoint need.
I do think colleges have done a good job filling in the gap for middle class kids who used to have too much to receive much aid and ended up carrying a lot of the debt. Now, it’s a bit better. But totally depends on the school and your own personal metrics.