i think this justifiable enough as far as im concerned, regardless of my personal feelings.
personal views purely for novelty:
i dont know about anyone else, but the main reason seeing the mode go saddens me, is because of:
1) rejuv has somehow managed to create the best gameplay elements out of every other fangame i've seen. harder modes tend to showcase, and create the need to use more of those gameplay elements in order to succeed, which is why i find them interesting. i know the game is veering towards being story driven, but lets be honest, replaying the game more than 2 times (good and bad ending) has value only because of the gameplay alone. and rejuv was liek the one fangame that i was seing myself doing a lot of runs of long-term, past its completion.
2) the difficulty hitting that exact spot that fits with me personally (hard enough to push me to think, but not to the point where it reduces the fun)
3) azery doing a superb job with making intense mode battles interesting. (3) gets plus sad points because the mode going away feels like wasting his talent. we had already discussed on some ways to tone things down a little because when we went back to look at it, some v13 battles (and ryland) felt, pure mathematically, a little more overtuned than desired.
all things considered this sounds like the more practical decision. i'll keep my challenge runs hiatus'd for that possibility and continue only my main file, and any new runs i start. i'm funnily curious to see how normal mode is for the first time.