If your goal is maximum gain, yes you need to eliminate the combiner losses to the extent possible. However, simply combining side by side antennas can give you a more directional antenna regardless the combiner losses. That can buy you a significant boost in signal quality when faced with multipath.
If you get the impedance matched correctly, you can reuse one of the original DB4e baluns. You can also use a common ferrite transformer such as the TV-2900.
I consider holl_ands work with 4NEC2 antenna modeling software to be among the best available. There's an impressive brain trust gathered together as the group of regular contributors to the antenna modeling/build forum at digitalhome.ca
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