I prefer 6 to 3, although surely it will drop down to 3 soon as the number of housemates decreases.
I think we definitely would have seen different people go if it's only 3 people up. It seems to give the public more opportunity to get rid of who they want, rather than the housemates. They always seem to be so shocked by who goes, and as said by Jas today when she saw the percentages, public perception and housemates perception of who is popular appear quite different.