4-way stop signs DO make sense. They are there to slow the traffic down and to discourage driving through the neighbourhood. Same as one-way streets in residential areas, speed bumps and things like that.

The only problem is that nobody ever meant to discourage cycling in the neighbourhoods, but these traffic calming measures to impede cyclists as well. Hence there are occasionally discussions on the municipal level of making bike lanes on one-way streets going the other way, or allowing cyclists to treat the stop signs as the yield signs.