They've been separate desktop environments from the start. From top to bottom they share nearly nothing. The compositors, window managers, toolkits and shells are all different.
They also are ideologically opposed. If they merged, which direction would they go? The more feature-rich KDE? Or the more streamlined Gnome? Such a merger would lead to infighting and stagnation.
This is before even talking about the actual code underlying both environments.
I think it's better for everyone if they stay as two separate projects.
“The way our policies, procedures [and] training have been designed and implemented for many years have not had the voices of black people involved in the design, the implementation, of those practices. And as a consequence of that, we get disproportionate outcomes in places where there shouldn’t be disproportionate outcomes.
I didn't dig very deep yet, but so far I found that the forces had been trying to train away individual unconscious biases in response to the Macpherson report, and watered down the process in favor of other priorities. (See paragraphs 505 and 506).
How did it take them 80 years to find a bomb in a back yard? Is it a large yard? Was the bomb buried?