Merge by distance messes up shading? I have recently encountered the following problem: I am importing a model from WOW Model Viewer, but it is imported in such a way that faces are not connected, so in order to rig and animate it properly, I have to use Merge by Distance to prevent "...bone heat weighting ..." Error. However, this messes up the shading for whatever reason.

Model before merge by distance:

 

Model after merge by distance:



Q: How can I get my model shaded as it was originally?
So the problem wasn't in the "Merge by distance", but rather because after I imported the model all edges were marked as sharp and I cleared them. If I don't clear them everything works fine. So to anyone having the same problem leave the edges marked as sharp.