>>48870643Still not hard.
The only way the E4 is made difficult is if you actively gimp yourself.
I went into my save data multiple times just to keep my Pokemon's level on par/underneath the boss's ace and remove their affection to prevent the bonuses from happening.
I also used mostly average-shitty Pokemon and edited their Natures, IVs, and EVs to be fairly average.
Also no healing items in battle, obviously.
Only once I did all that was the E4 and Champion actually challenging.