[matthuisman]

Kodi only checks for updates every X hours.
You can force update check by using context menu on repo (check for updates)

- Option to convert any addon to m3u playlist and use it with IPTV Merge, like @primaeval's IPTV addons.
  That's impossible. The add-ons need to export playlist and epg for merge to work with. There is no way to automatically convert them.

  You should be able to use with his IPTV Add-ons.
  IPTV Merge > Playlists > Add > File > special://profile/addon_data/plugin.video.iptvsimple.addons/streams.m3u8
  IPTV Merge > EPG > Add > File > special://profile/addon_data/plugin.video.iptvsimple.addons/xmltv.xml
  (this is just based off his source code - not tested)

Seems like you may not be aware that IPTV Merge runs as a service and will run a merge in the background every X mins (see the addon settings)
When it does this, no dialogs are shown. It stores the timestamp of last merge.
So, if you launch Kodi and it's been more than the period, it will indeed run a merge at login.

Run Merge is just a way to force a merge to see any errors etc.
Therefore, your other suggestions are not really required