Bolt the Cat said:you can't really reduce HMs much more than they currently are.
well cut, strength, and rock smash are redundant. can be reduced to only Strength to keep block puzzles. At very least removing cut wouldn't anger anyone. At least rock smash has an on-hit effect. Whirlpool is also mechanically the same in the field to cut/smash, and waterfall locations can be blocked by rocks/trees. Wouldn't look pretty, but I can see reason to reduce HMs