Whenever there are
Lily-Nova and
LYD-LHJ in the competition, only blinded CHN fans will think an XD title is a sure thing for China... These 2 non-CHN pairs have been winning World Championships and Olympic Medals in the past 4 years... Unlike the WS category where China's dominance and depth is more apparent, the XD category is very much up for grab!
In general, I would rather have one crazy ass strong XD pair...

Depth is surely a major issue in Thomas Cups and Uber Cups...

but in individual competition, having one
ace player/pair is a huugggeee advantage. INA had Taufik Hidayat in 2004 and 2005 that can win Olympic gold and World Championship... We were happier having one TH compared to DEN who had Peter Gade and Kenneth Jonassen in the top 10...