Spartans are still important, as they are still considered the most advanced weapon humanity has ever created, down to all spartan (even the Spartan IVs) being rated hyperlethal (in the lore, its not just chief and noble six).
as for seeing S-IVs everywhere. it should also be noted that Spartan IVs are still pretty rare, even at the time of Halo 5 (when IVs were most likely at their peak population). we see so many IVs due to us being the player, and as the players we are playing as spartans, and the FPS games putting heavy focus on chief and other spartans, with the only exception being ODST. on top of this, halo 4, 5, and somewhat Infinite had had many scenes with the Infinity (with infinite being the aftermath, and infinity survivors). the vast majority of Spartan IVs are stationed on the Infinity. in-universe, if you are on the Infinity you are drastically more likely to see Spartan-IVs. however, if you are not on Infinity, you not likely ever going to see a spartan.
(Going to note this before someone mentions this, but many fans believe Spartan IVs have completely replaced the ODST branch, hence why they have not shown up in the 343 era games. However, the IVs have not replaced, nor significantly diminished the ODST population. Even on the Infinity where most of the IVs are, they are still greatly outnumbered by ODSTs. If I remember correctly it’s something like 700 ODST to every 5 Spartan IV or something like that)
In-universe, the IVs are not seen as “inferior”. They are by no means seen as a step up from the IIs or IIIs, but they aren’t seen as being worse. Generally the IIs and IIIs don’t mind the IVs (especially, since they trained the IVs, and most IVs even picked up mannerisms and and other traits from their II and III trainers). even the Master Chief himself finds their resourcefulness and determination admirable. He even outright speaks highly of Fireteam Taurus in Shadows of Reach. Those within the UNSC that are serving on the front lines still look up the the IVs and revere them as if they were IIs, even going so far as defer all command to the Spartan IVs in times of crisis, like when Infinity fell. The only major critics of the IVs in the lore are Dr Halsey (to be fair she doesn’t like IIIs either) and, ironically, the Spartan IVs themselves. As we’ve seen in the books, IVs take defeats personally and blame themselves for missions going awry or any friendly losses, blaming themselves for not living up to the IIs.
As for the fans. Many fans were turned off by Palmer’s “thought you’d be taller” remark and by Demarco’s frat boy personality. And a lot of fans ended up associating the personality of these two individuals with the whole of the Spartan IV program. It doesn’t help either that most IVs that we get in the games beside Demarco and Palmer don’t really have any personality and are about as interesting as cardboard. There is quite the difference between the IVs we get in the games vs the IVs in the books/comics. Generally, the IVs in the books/comics are well received and even beloved by fans. They are great characters, they show a great mixture of humanity and spartan stoicism, and we see them do awesome things. However, most of the fan base doesn’t read the books, and only play the games. Fortunately, a large majority of the fan base is starting to appreciate the IVs because of Halo Infinite. The Spartans we find, hear in the audio logs, and read about in Rubicon Protocol effectively changed the way many fans view the IVs simply because they actually represented what Spartan IVs should’ve be like since halo 4 and how they’ve been in the books up to this point, as highly competent/professional super soldiers willing to do anything to protect humanity.
Unfortunately there are some fans that just don’t like the IVs because they are IVs. While the IVs are “weaker” than the IIs, the difference in strength between them is actually not that big. IVs are ridiculously strong while in armor, weaker out of armor, but are still inhumanly strong out of armor. It’s more likely that their augmentations make them closer to the IIIs than the II. For some reason though, many fans like to over exaggerate the weakness as the IVs being so weak that they’re no stronger than an un-augmented human. On a similar note, many fans didn’t like that the IVs are adult volunteers, and willingly ignore the fact that these volunteers are all hand selected from the UNSC armed forces (many of the IVs were serving before the IIIs were even born), and fought as normal humans against the very same covenant that nearly wiped out the IIs and IIIs. and were then trained again by IIs and IIIs. instead, we see fans favoring their idea of the IVs being so incompetent and poorly trained that they entirely ineffective or are equivalent to random untrained civilians in power armor because they weren’t trained since they were 6.
TLDR: Spartans are still important.
Spartan IVs in books/comics/lore/infinite > IVs in halo 4 and 5.
Infinite has better IVs than 4 and 5.
Spartan IVs are great in the lore but are not received well by fans because the bad writing of Palmer, Demarco, and Locke. And most fans don’t read the books, so they don’t know about the good IVs.
Now for some fun facts:
- Spartan IVs hated the gen-2 armor, as it was not as protective and was cheaply made. Gen-1 would have been better but was too expensive and lacking some advancements that Gen-2 had.
- Spartan IV have some very unique/strange augmentations: they can eat tree bark and breath methane. They can also see in total darkness like the IIIs.
- The original Spartan IVs were created to not need armor, and were strong enough to toss around Spartan IIs, however the augmentations drove the candidates insane and they went into a violent frenzy. The only known surviving candidate tried to take control of Infinity, but was thrown out a window into space by Palmer.
- In the early storyboard sketches of halo 4, the introduction of the Spartan IVs involved a squad of IVs fighting off prometheans that ambushed Chief, during which, Palmer chokes one of the knights. Something of note that I find interesting is the Spartans’ armor in this very early concept story board, as it is visually reminiscent of the SPI armor but with the air assault helmet.
