[abfunders]

dropped merchant's daily payments from $2782/daily down to $2086/daily

Consolidations are paying off old debt with new debt.
The question is how much new debt is being taken on and how much old is being paid off?
If the old debt is MCA debt, and the new debt is MCA debt, unless they are desperate, this will only benefit the broker and funder and not the merchant.
If the new debt is a secured or otherwise bank-worthy loan, either with no PPP or good rates or revolving feature, then everyone wins.

Nothing against reverse consolidations, but I just had a broker tell me about a very nice file doing over $1mm/year who he had in a reverse consolidation, who wasn't already factoring.... I recommended getting him into a factoring situation / ABL and he didn't listen. Guess what? Another broker saw the file, had direct contact with the merchant, and (IMHO, rightfully) took the deal from the original broker.