When the timing rules were released, it felt like they were a very explicit step to try and nerf ordnance Contracted Scouts.

Does having a separate phase "v. Target of the attack becomes the defender" affect literally any other card in the game other than R4 Agromech? It seems a bit more natural to me that when you "Declare Target of the attack", that target you just picked is the defender, lol. Why is there no defender after you've declared the target?

The timing was not changed to nerf Contracted Scouts. The bit of timing that makes R4 Agromech not work with Blaster Turrets or Deadeye has worked that way since last November. The only reason that Deadeye and Blaster Turret worked with R4 was because the FAQ explicitly said that they did.

I do miss Kavil/Blaster/R4, though.