Definitely…students with high GPA and high stats with lower predicted yields (UCs are probably doing it by decile) are among the most likely to be the beneficiary of merit awards.
Separately, a friend (OOS) received acceptances from UCLA and UCSD on Friday night, and had previously been admitted to UCSC. Thirty minutes after the UCLA and UCSD acceptances, the student received a $10K per year merit award from UCSC…I have a hard time believing that timing was a coincidence.