So this is ultimately a question of "Am I doing something wrong?".
I've seen videos saying you should have all tier 4 Incarnates by veteran level 50 based on merits alone. The patch notes state this as well with a layout of how many you get for every 3 levels. The problem is the math doesn't work.
If you were to get a T4, on spending merits only, it will cost you 68 merits. 38 spent directly towards 2 crafting items and 30 converted to threads to get the rest of the items. That makes the total cost of all 6 slots 408 merits.
By level 50, you will have recieved a total of 360 merits, which obviously isn't enough. You will have to get to level 63 to total 410 merits.
Now, before you bring up thread and shard drops, this is all based on merits and merits alone. Even if we do talk threads and such, the grand total of needed threads is 2640 for all t4s. Shards aren't worth messing with because of low drop rate and component cost. If I remember correctly, by the time I hit veteran level 50 I may have got 120 shards and maybe 600-700 threads.
So... am I doing something wrong? Is there something I don't understand or overlooked and I'm doing some expensive way to get them? Were there patch notes somewhere that stated changes to the system that I am unaware of?