Can the number of intermediates for a reaction be more than the total number of transition states?
Let's assume your reactive complex (reactants interacting) are optimised, i.e. its gradient equals zero, and your potential energy surface is continuous.

Then any direction is either uphill or constant (otherwise the optimisation hypothesis would not apply).
There are three possibilities: (a) going from reactants to intermediate gives a transition state which has higher energy than both reactive complex and intermediate; (b) reactants and intermediate lie on a plateau where energy does not change; or (c) one hypothesis is wrong.

So yes, for barrierless processes.