To be clear, it wasn't delayed because miners complained, it was delayed because it wasn't ready yet.
The merge was expedited over miner concerns, prioritizing it over sharding as originally planned, so it’s actually the opposite of what you are saying.
Sorry, I didn't mean to draw such a straight line between the two things. My point is just that it didn't happen last year, and even after being expedited, it won't happen this year either.