I would be really sad to see that happen but I fear it will be that way. It makes the E4 so much easier. Hoenn whilst my second least favourite region did have a good structured E4. Sydney could hurt you and annoy you with evasion moves. Phoebe used lots of Protects with Pressure to eat PP. Glacia used Hail to make sure your team took some damage. Drake hit hard and unless you packed an Ice move he took a while to take down. With these made the Champion battle a lot more intense as each fight got harder and therefore if you didn't fully prepare or have enough items, you could lose to Steven/Wallace.
Would love to see a Mega for each E4. Even if we have to wait for rematches with them
I never thought of the Hoenn E4 like this. I always found Hoenn E4 hard because I was nearly always only Lv 40~45 when I got there (it's a lot to give away around 8 levels). In one game I JUST had Salamence while Fighting Drake and then Steven comes in with Lv 58 Metagross... The level curve could do with a little bit of tweaking (or the addition of Audino/XP Share ;) ) I could never find enough trainers to level up and ended up chasing Gabby and Ty around Hoenn leeching XP off of them as one of the few fast repeatable battles in the game.
I would die a little inside if they dropped from 5 mons down to 4. We need more trainers with 5/6 mons, not less. Throw them at us randomly too during the main game. Theres no way Ace Trainers at like Victory Road should only have 2/3 mons at most :/