The "merciless" was used in the standardised messages decided by referendum in 2009: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Licensing_update#Proposed_terms_of_use It got lost in the implementation in 2009: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Licensing_update/Implementation#Terms_for_ed... And then the message was removed without many ceremonies in 2012: https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T44491
That said, many wikis (and sometimes even the WMF) edit or replace the global messaging (wikimedia-copyrightwarning and formerly also wikimedia-editpage-tos-summary) in ways which don't comply with global consensus.
Nemo