You are of course entitled to your own opinion on Merkel, if you are happy with the job she's doing, more power to you. I think she's an extremely talented politician who knows how to sit out a war, impose her will and get rid of opposition without getting her hands dirty. Her career path is paved with the corpses of ambitious politicians trying challenge her authority (Koch, Merz, Seehofer etc. etc.). She is very good at what she does, a silent assassin.
Merkel has an 88% approval rating according to state television surveys. Those are Honecker / Lukashenko numbers, not anything based in reality. Mainstream media are generally toeing the government line. Critical, independent journalism is scarce. This reminds me of the late 80's in East Germany. Opposing views are simply positioned as 'right wing' or 'anti-semitic' conspiracies, playing perfectly into the perpetual German post WW2 guilt, the stick to squash any notion of national pride and identity forever.
Merkel stands for less German autonomy, more EU, unsustainable immigration creating rising social, ethnic and religious tension as well as a massive burden on the country's social system - especially in the big cities. Taxes have been rising continuously for many years, bureaucracy and regulatory pressure is becoming a real problem for small business owners - you need permits for the most ridiculous things. The pension system is under water and living on borrowed time.
Then there's the unanswered question of German sovereignty. The country is still an occupied area and has been since WW1 - there never was a peace treaty, a prerequisite to regaining sovereignty. Germans don't even have a proper constitution, just a much weaker law book ("Grundgesetz"). That's another issue that will never be resolved under Merkel. It might not be important to you, to me it is. I believe more in sovereign nations than in handing over power to a bureaucratic, undemocratic and corporate-friendly power structure like the EU.
In short, Merkel's vision is one of a weak Germany and a strong EU. I don't share that vision at all.
Life is great in Germany if you're a government employee. Guaranteed income in good times and bad times and zero skin in the game. Higher-up's are treated and behaving like royalty, especially within politics or the German tax collection agency.