I've read about saving, then attacking a merchant, then reloading a save, to get the merchant to restock inventory and gold.

My question is rather than doing this, why don't players just use the "Wait" for 48 hours? (two 24-hour waits)

Waiting restocks *all* the merchants.

Is it because the passage of in-game time affects something in-game? I noticed when I waited a while, dragons and stuff would appear when I walked out of the shop sometimes.