I am trying to understand the Merge process and not because of performance issues or hangs or errors or whatever else I have been reading about all day today so far!
What I am trying to figure out is what exactly is the merge process doing in terms that can be described to extremely not technical people

If I am using a retention policy that retains the last 7 restore points (I think that needs to change to days - need to check if there are any drawbacks to that first)...with GFS is configured to:
Keep weekly full backups for 4 weeks
If multiple backups exist, use the one from: Friday
Keep Monthly backups for: 12 months
Use weekly backup from the following week of a month: Last
Keep yearly full backups for: 7 years
Use monthly full backup from the following month: January
My understanding here is that the oldest "incremental" last 7 restore points is merged into the weekly. I cannot see the specific admin settings - our hosted service's team manages that side of it, I can only see the self service portal.
I am trying to figure out how that merge process is working out what is actually merged - for example, if I have files in my oldest incremental but not in my weekly full, at time of merge what do I end up with.
I am hoping there is a way to end up with either:
1) a backup that has the files that existed at the time of the incremental but not at the time the weekly full occurred
or
2) a backup that has just the files that existed at the time of the full
What setting choices would be used to end up with either of these results? If both of these results are possible of course.