I know it is quite a difficult concept for people to get but merged mining does not make a child coin more or less independent.
If the above statement is TRUE, and if BTCdrak is favourite of the idea to merge-mine Viacoin, then i'm also in favour of it (without going into the inner mathematics of the concept).
May the force be with it!
I am also for merged mining. VIA has a cost and blocktime advantage over BTC/XCP but also a security disadvantage. Let's try and close that gap and give entrepreneurs one less reason to hesitate deploying with VIA/XCH!