Did they offer merit to get there? I don’t think so, not most of them anyway.
Michigan and California have a lot of strong instate students so I’m not sure they ever did need to offer it.
Pretty sure the top tier privates like HYPSM didn’t offer it either, though some have used it to climb rankings…I’m thinking of maybe Emory or Vandy’s top scholarships, or Tulane which still uses them, or NEU which has also cut way back on merit.