Not sure how much this will apply to you, but last time I bough new skates, I dropped down half a size from 5 to 4.5. And yes, I'm an adult. For me, I found that the shorter runner exasperated some of flaws in my skating. From my understanding, as the blade transitions from your profile up to the toe of the skate, with the shorter runner, that transition is more aggressive. An exaggerated way to illustrate this is think of a a hill that takes you up vertically 10ft over a distance of 1 block vs. a hill that does the same over the distance of 1/2 a block. The incline is steeper, so with a skate blade, as I rocked forward, the drop off was quicker, making it easier, for me at least, to get up onto my toes too much, shortening my stride, in addition to also exasperated stability issues.
To a certain degree, some of the issues could be address by simply working on my technique more, which I did. But overall, I ended up having to go to a very flat profile to help address my needs, which was fine. Overall, it helped me become a way better skater. For a long while--I've been skating for around 40 years--I'd plateaued with my skating and didn't think I'd be getting much better. But the tighter skate fit allowed me to loosen my laces a lot more, without loss of control, which gave me more ankle mobility, forward and back and side to size, which let me get a more aggressive angle on my inside and outside edge push offs. This also gave me a better feel for my edges. Though, all this didn't just come overnight. I had to work for it, but it was some short term pain for some long term gain.
Don't know how much this applies to you, but that's my experience.