Merino jersey reduced to £80 so what? My £70RRP Altura and £90RRP Bontrager are windproof, merino has been widely decried as Emporer’s new clothes.
Its easy to find examples to support an argument. My Sportwool (not simple merino) reduced to £60 Rapha Country Jersey is cheaper than my £75 Montane Sportwool jersey, is far better finished, a better fit, has more features, and has Rapha’s peerlesss customer service behind it (crash in it or snag it on a thorn, send it back for “repair” and you get a new one back according to numerous reports).
Whether merino or sportwool works for you is subjective. Munqe Chick and I have something like 30 merino tops between us, from the original cheapo P-X base layers to Rapha, Howies, Icebreaker, Finisterre, Embers etc and are (obviously) big fans of the stuff. It doesnt wick as well as synthetic so apparently if you are a heavy sweater it holds on to moisture and you get cold, which isnt an issue for either of us.
As with most things premium prices dont offer a proportionate increase in performance, its incremental, and whether those increments are worth it is up to you and you find a price/performance point that youre happy with (I’m an Ultegra/XT person).