4v4s in MTW were easy to host without any lag. I had hosted 4v4s ever since the STW days and never had a problem with lag in my games. It is possible the 4v4 was removed due to a lag issue with RTW, but we will never know, until the reason is given by the developers. Personally, I would rather have more players and less units than the other way around.

The worse thing is the huge TW clan community has grown up around the big 4v4 games of STW and MTW. The 3v3 of RTW is a step backwards for these players since they just lost one teammate per game.

As for speed: I am still undecided about that. The other problems with MP are more of a priority with me right now.