Wasn't it at the same stature at the start of dr, then after motion says it died it was slightly grayed and below in the council, now that it was "released" by cole/frak its blacked out

Balance's death couldn't have partially caused the merge as in some of Lloyd's earliest communications/visions with the source dragons balance is still alive and the same level and colour as the rest of the source dragons meaning balance died some time after the merge happened (correct me if wrong).