You may indeed be using fewer relays now, but does the death of those four mean that others weren't created? I've seen a lot more people posting about running their own relays than I did earlier on. I'm even investigating how to run my own relay. What you see in your client relay list may not necessarily indicate the overall relay numbers. Am I missing something here? 

 You're missing that he's been away a while and wants to pontificate to the people who never left. 

 Fair enough. I'm working on doing that less myself.