Merino shirts are literally the only shirts I've worn through to have holes on various places. Its not that great and vastly overpriced material for many active uses, but marketing is strong with this one.

To quote some mountain guides I talked about this - its a great second layer in snowy sports, ie ski touring. Wicking of sweat ain't great compared to synthetics (and thus drying takes also much longer), but when wet it keeps warmth, unlike synthetics or cotton. As top layer it sucks since as mentioned it has little resistance to abrasion comparatively, and everybody wears some sort of backpack out there. I have synthetic shirts that lasted 10 years either frequent gym going or intense mountain sports, not a single hole or tear. None of merinos survived that long.

I talk about cheaper brands like Decathlon but also Ice Breaker, the heavier/thicker ones.

Not talking about hoodies here, those seem much thicker material and never worn those, synthetics served me for such role very well so far.