HDP 2.2: Phoenix adds 256 new HBase regions

After a clean install of HDP 2.2 with Phoenix, more than 256 new regions are created in HBase. On a single node dev/test cluster that creates unnecessary load on HBase. It also seems noticeably slowing down sqlline startup times compared to HDP 2.1.x.
Quick check of Phoenix system tables indicates that SYSTEM.SEQUENCE is created with 256 salt buckets. Dropping table directly from HBase does not help as it’s being re-created with the same number of buckets.

sqlline version 1.1.2
0: jdbc:phoenix:box22:2181:/hbase-unsecure> !tables
+————+————-+————+————+————+————+—————————+—————-+————-+—————-+————–+————–+—————+
| TABLE_CAT | TABLE_SCHEM | TABLE_NAME | TABLE_TYPE | REMARKS | TYPE_NAME | SELF_REFERENCING_COL_NAME | REF_GENERATION | INDEX_STATE | IMMUTABLE_ROWS | SALT_BUCKETS | MULTI_TENANT | VIEW_STATEMEN |
+————+————-+————+————+————+————+—————————+—————-+————-+—————-+————–+————–+—————+
| null | SYSTEM | CATALOG | SYSTEM TABLE | null | null | null | null | null | false | null | false | null |
| null | SYSTEM | SEQUENCE | SYSTEM TABLE | null | null | null | null | null | false | 256 | false | null |
| null | SYSTEM | STATS | SYSTEM TABLE | null | null | null | null | null | false | null | false | null |
+————+————-+————+————+————+————+—————————+—————-+————-+—————-+————–+————–+—————+