<p>As the question states, should <a href="https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/bed" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged &#39;bed&#39;" rel="tag">bed</a> and <a href="https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/build-plate" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged &#39;build-plate&#39;" rel="tag">build-plate</a> be merged? Basically, both tags refer to the same part of the printer; <a href="https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/bed" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged &#39;bed&#39;" rel="tag">bed</a> should be a synonym for <a href="https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/build-plate" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged &#39;build-plate&#39;" rel="tag">build-plate</a>.</p>

Edit: I like Trish's suggestion best.
I vote
no
. Our (Hyrel) printers have, on some models, a thick aluminum
bed
that can reach 200C, but we expect users to mount different
build-plate
s on it, depending on what material they're printing with. These can be coated with PEI, garolite, polycarbonate, or others; or they can be commercial build plates like GeckoTek or Anycubic Ultrabase.
You heat the bed. You print on the build plate. In some cases, these may be a single item.