No, they run better in the new version. Here's your problem. You're defining running well as running fast. Now, that may be fine and dandy for a lot of games, but if you want games to work properly, never crash, and look right, you need to stop worrying about running fast and start worrying about running well. There was an era of Dolphin defined by making games run fast. That era is pretty much over, and the focus has gone to optimizing and making games run well. Hacks are being removed, proper emulation is being added, and for some people that means certain games will run slower.
Will Dolphin get faster again? Probably, there are ways to optimize better code. But the important part is that Dolphin 4.0 runs game BETTER than 3.5 did. They're more accurate to the hardware. You may not appreciate that work now, but down the line you'll come to appreciate newer builds because of the efforts put in to make games run well.
Will Dolphin get faster again? Probably, there are ways to optimize better code. But the important part is that Dolphin 4.0 runs game BETTER than 3.5 did. They're more accurate to the hardware. You may not appreciate that work now, but down the line you'll come to appreciate newer builds because of the efforts put in to make games run well.