As a fan of Intense mode, I will say that while I enjoyed the challenge, it really was to time consuming, I'd spend more time save quitting for the best IVs and working way too hard on the team for the next gym/boss battle, forgetting to let go and immerse myself in the vast and rich story and characters of pokemon rejuvenation.
Pokemon rejuvenation was meant to be played as a immersive pokemon world story experience and for the amazing side quests, not for the battles, the challenging battles are the extra icing on top of the cake.
If you want a challenge, just do difficult nuzlocks without debug, like grass monotype etc or a half level cap.
So I support Jan's decision on scrapping intense mode.
That said, I do hope Jan introduced some difficult puzzles into the game, like that Kakori gym puzzle was awesome.