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I don't agree. Inline six engines are perfectly balanced and quite smooth. Fours are not, and balancing them (via balance shafts) introduces a lot of tradeoffs (starting with friction and impacting efficiency and power). I have owned about 5-6 turbo four cylinder engines over the years, and none of them can come close to the smoothness of BMW's legendary inline six. Some of those turbo fours have been quite impressive in terms of power, but none impressed me in terms of refinement. Several even failed to impress in terms of gas mileage (as an example, the turbo four in my Acura RDX is a gas hog and I see no real benefit to it compared to some of the V6 engines in Acura's other products).
I do believe BMW has nailed the efficiency aspect with the N20, but it would take a miracle for it to compete with the inline six for smoothness and refinement. That would be asking a lot from a blown four cylinder -- to the point of defying physics. It's hard to do better than a perfectly balanced engine like an inline six or a V-12.
For me, it comes down to price in the case of BMW, which is a premium auto in my income bracket. I had no problem spending $55K on my Z4 with the inline six. I'd never pay that much for a turbo four, not even close. I wouldn't pay $45K for an X3 with a turbo four either.
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