Why in the world do people like the three point hold?
It's not that they "like" the 3 point hold. You're only taking in one part of the equation. The fact is that in DOA3 the stun game wasn't as prevalent. You had two maaaybe three attacks you could get off if any. Additionally, hi-counter throws HURT. You almost didn't want to hold unless you had to. The attacker didn't have to worry about mix-up as much as they do now. The holding wasn't based off which hit-level was coming, but if the defender felt that the offender would extend the string, launch, or reset.
Just as I stated before, I'm fine with DOA3's system having a 3-point hold, I really could care less if it was 4 point of 3 point. I know that in 4-point hold you are effectively making it a mix-up oriented game where one launcher at any point can do 50%+ life loss. However, in a DOA4/5 system where the game is so heavily reliant on the stun system, a three point hold system is too much (for example: DOAD).