DiezMon wrote:
So, in general circuit discussion: what if I bypass the 4-way switch
altogether? Does that then turn the circuit into a 2-way?


Yes, you can do that. I have done that myself in the exact same
situation. In addition, the 3-way (2 switch) operation is pretty
finicky if you don't run an additional wire. It will end up working
like a badly wired 3-way setup--in other words, in some on/off
combinations, it works as you would expect, in others, the light goes
on and immediately switches off.

In the end, despite the claims on the packaging, these timers don't
really work in multi-switch installations unless you run additional
wiring. I ended up bypassing all but one switch, and running it as a
plain old 2-way. Since they're on automatic timers, these circuits
don't get switched much anyway, so having the switch in only one
location (instead of 3 or 4) hasn't been an issue.