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Masters Mark - Does It Matter With Experience In Your Field?

I'll try and keep this brief.

I started my Masters in Biomedical Science (specialising in Clinical Biochemistry) in September (having graduated from my BSc in 2018) and went into teaching (absolutely hated it and left in 2020). After leaving, I got a job as an Associate Practitioner for 3 years in a hospital lab. (very brief version of my history over the last 5 years)

Anyway, having spent 5 years out of academia, my writing structure got somewhat rusty but is now what I could consider up to par (so far I have had 5 pieces of work back, 2 were passes (these involved microbiology and I'm not a microbiologist by any stretch of the imagination... I am a Biochemist in Biomed as I find microbiology very dull...) and the other 3 were merits with two of them being rather high (67% and 68% and were heavily biochemistry based).

Effectively I'm putting my all into my work at this point and am JUST missing the distinction mark. Would a Merit be sufficient enough with several years experience in the field that employers would not consider it a hindrance in taking time off to improve my CV in the academic side of things)?

My BSc grade is a 2.2 but I'll admit at the time I could have tried harder (long story short, I spent too long chasing someone, didn't go anywhere and my grade suffered).