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Multiple chains that have diverged in the past can never join together. Unless you want to double the amount of total coins in the network. Its technically possible if two different chains wanted to merge they could decide on which block they will merge at, but there is the huge issue of agreeing on an exchange rate between the both old coins to the new coins.

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From a strict ledger of transactions metaphor of the blockchain they could be joined without double value but it'd require that all blocks from both chains were strictly disjoint sets of transactions and no account overspent when combining both chains. On a more real technical level though the protocol doesn't have a way to have two parent blocks even if the two chains satisfied the conditions to avoid double spending.

Right, and that's a lot like agreeing on an acquisition price in the case of a merger. There too stock in the acquired company is commonly traded for stock in the acquiring company at agreed upon prices.

And technically, I think it must remain possible as long as you can always simply issue a new token with a certain starting distribution.

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