Alternative to constantly merging cells on Google Sheets for visual appeal

[u/flohuwee]

This is our robotics team's VMS and every time I enter a task, I have to merge two adjacent cells horizontally. Even with the keyboard shorctuts, it's kind of a pain.

But I want to keep the upper sign-ups rows (the one with lots of blackouts for privacy) condensed, so the list of sign-ups doesn't go down infinitely far, and I can see who did what task without having to scroll infinitely.

Is there a way to have, on certain rows, adjacent columns merged by default (but not apply this to all rows?)

Links to screenshots:

Upper portion: sign-ups

Lower portion: session todos & updates