Short answer: merging duplicate contacts on Android works best as a review-and-merge task, not as blind deletion. The point is to keep the contact list easier to trust, not just shorter.
Contact clutter is different from screenshot or video clutter. The risk is not emotional media loss. The risk is ending up with a contact list that still feels unreliable because repeated records, stale imports, and partial entries were not reviewed carefully enough.
When to do contact cleanup
Do it after urgent storage cleanup if space is the main problem.
Do it earlier if the contact list itself is the daily source of frustration.
Treat merge review as an organization task more than a storage task.
What a good merge flow should do
Show likely duplicates clearly.
Make it obvious which details overlap and which details are different.
Keep the decision feeling reviewable before any merge or removal happens.
If your main goal is contact cleanup, continue to duplicate contacts cleanup. If contacts are only one part of a broader Android cleanup session, use organize contacts and calendar.
The goal of contact cleanup is not fewer names. It is a contact list you trust faster every time you use it.