The date of the merge has been known for sometime, so the price increase has been mostkly priced in the previous weeks (see recent pumps). Unfortunately the recent US CPI info release has sent the markets (including crypto ones) into a frenzy. In any case I am optimistic that the price of Eth will explode once the better part of this "recession" is behind us.
Makes sense. The bit I didn't understand was that presumably there was uncertainty around whether the merge would be successful. But perhaps there still is, or like you say, the CPI info release has obscured things.