IN my opinion: The main reason why they made it with only three tuners is because, they knew it would make people have to have a 2nd hopper for tuner conflicts with families with 3 or more people. They originally only put the fee for a 2nd hopper at $7.00 -same as the Joey units. So just about everyone got a 2nd hopper and some even a third at only $7.00.
Then last Spring of 2013 ,about the same time as the 2nd generation of hopper was released,they lowered the boom and said: "Oh by the way, we are going to go up to $12.00 for the second hopper. We all screamed and yelled , rightfully so, that it was bait and switch. So after page after page of outrage on this site , the powers that be at DISH decided to "grandfather" everyone with the old hoppers before May of 2013.
So now 6 months later DISH says Guess what? The grandfathering ends , come January bill and now everyone will pay the $12.00 2nd hopper fee and the dvr fee is going up to $12.00 as well. Oh but as a consolation prize to all the folks out there who took the bait , we will give you a $5.00 credit for 18 months, but your dvr fee is still going up the $2.00.
So to put this in perspective that all can understand , the reason why DISH is creating only three tuner hoppers is because they want the extra $$$ that now all 2nd hoppers will create at $12.00 vs $7.00 like the joeys . So GREED wins again! After all DISH is the KING of Made Up , Because we can, Charge it FEES.