huh? gerbmerge is very easy if you start from the samples. Installation on windows requires that you install several other packages but once you get everything installed, it’s quite easy to use. panel layout is driven from a simple file. You might have to experiment a bit to get the best layout but I never found it at all hard. Compared to learning eagle, it was a walk in the park.
To create a panel, you define the configuration file for the boards and invoke gerbmerge. I suspect you got confused by the configuration file. The documentation says to start with a sample and work from there. That’s what I did and it was pretty easy.
The other thing that can be confusing (on windows) is that you run it from a dos box and it requires that you get the environment right. I created a batch file to invoke it and make sure that the path is correct. After that, it;s just a matter of creating the config file with the info on my boards. I usually use manual relative placement but automatic placement works pretty well