This presumes that the merger was a neutron-star binary. If the progenitors were black holes, there's no need to rethink nuclear physics. One would then have t

This presumes that the merger was a neutron-star binary. If the progenitors were black holes, there's no need to rethink nuclear physics. One would then have to contend with estimating the rate of stellar-mass black-hole mergers, but at least there's no need to break our understanding of QCD at the same time... Time will tell. As the gravitational-wave detectors trigger on more neutron-star mergers with optical counterparts, the answers will become clear. If there are lots of events without optical counterparts, they're more apt to be black holes.