I don't think the goal was ever to have more "ways" but that was a means to achieve a desired frequency range. It is hard to match the timbre of drivers and for each "way" you increase that complexity and then add in a time factor as well as a displacement. If you could get a single motor to reproduce the entire audible spectrum with a flat response, that would be ideal, just not practical with current technology (and at the volume levels often desired, and without severe eq...sorry Amar).

The next best thing to a 1-way is a 2-way. You are only trying to match the two things and with them you can often cover a lot of ground that a single transducer really can't cover. The vast majority of my "favorite" speakers are 2-ways (i.e. M2, 604, A4, 4675). Conversely, I have almost zero favorite 3-ways. Most them, to my ears, have a nasally sound that I don't like. In Cinema (my specialty), The QSC 423 is good sounding as are the JBL 5674/5672 but most of the others sound notably worse than the 2-way alternatives (again, to my ears). There are a lot of factors in play though as there are different drivers, cabinent designs and such that play into that as well.

As for 4-ways, I like/love my L250s...always have. I like them better than the 250Ti (I never really liked that titanium sound of the 250Ti, but that is my preference). In Cinema, I like the QSC SC-424, a 4-way using a concentric ring-radiator. However, in cinema, we have the added challenge of playing through a sheet of vinyl. The extra "way" allows one to avoid excessive EQ and play frequencies above 7KHz much more effortlessly and keeps the harshness down. These are not problems most people have in a home environment.

At this point, the best speaker I've personally heard is the M2 and it is just a 2-way. Show me a 4-way that sounds better. That said, I'll put my L250s up against any 3-way speaker I've heard.