Ok, you might know or know where I can get an answer. WHY in the WORLD did they go down to teams of 5 / 3 up on exercise in the Olympics? It's sorta of a bummer and not as fun to watch?
I'm not exactly sure why, but, as far as I remember they reduced the number of gymnasts per team from 6 to 5 to allow athletes from other sports to go to the Olympics because they added new sports or something like that, even if I'm not really sure why gymnastics was affected by this decision (I think they went from 7 to 6 gymnasts per team when trampoline became an Olympic sport but that's still gymnastics so it makes more sense)
As for the 3 up-3 count I guess it's a matter of time? I read that the federation wanted to make the sport more accessible to a larger audience and with less gymnasts competing the competitions are shorter and easier to understand and people don't get bored, there might also be commercial/economic reasons (like Tv broadcast and stuff like that), but I'm not sure if these were officiale reasons or simply someone's opinion about the changes.
Also the smaller team and less gymnasts competing are an advantage for teams out of the "Big 4", because not every country has 100 gymnasts and it's easier for them if they only have to find 3 good gymansts on every event. (And this is the only reason why I think this new format doesn't suck 100%)
I guess the official reason is a mix of all of these things, and possibly more, if any of my followers know more please let me know :)
