Merge isn't superior to rebase; they're both tools with different purposes.

Have you ever squashed down a branch before merging back into main? Then you've used rebase.

The purpose of source control (not just git) is to keep a useful version history of your project. If you don't need to know where/when a commit originally branched off from, rebase can keep a cleaner history than merge.

Even rebasing a branch off the latest commit just to merge back in can be useful.