It's as much about what the engine weighs as it is horsepower. Without looking into all the specifics for the engines you're considering, it's safe to say the 4 cylinder engines are generally quite a bit lighter than the 6's. An extra 100lbs hanging on the transom can make a very noticeable difference as you've seen!
Merc has a 4 stroke 115 that would work pretty well I think. That engine, and the Yamaha version of that same engine (yes, Yamaha built the power heads for Merc for a few years!) would be at the forefront of my searching. Those are at the top of the HP range for conventional 2 tube 'toons on our lake. There are some newer boats with w/bigger, but guessing there's bigger tubes involved, engine setbacks (extended transoms), and driver forward floor plans to get balance restored.
Honda 90's are so popular because they're at the top of a weight class/range in the Honda line up. To go with more power in the Honda line up, the weight takes a BIG jump to weights that will overwhelm a 24' toon. They're still 4 cylinders, but the displacement nearly doubles compared to the 90!
Point being, for optimal results, you need to do some homework prior to searching for your next engine. Makes no difference which manf. you study, you'll see that many times displacement stays the same across a few different horsepower engines, making weights for those engines nearly identical, then takes a big jump to get to the next one up, with a similar jump in weight. You want to stay just under those big weight/displacement gains to get max power with minimum weight. Your trouble to take the time to figure out where those breaks are at will pay off in spades.....
