That was definitely true of the 5th symphony, and you hear the work done both ways. Nowadays it seems as likely you'll hear ABABA instead of the ABA I heard exclusively in my younger days. But Jonathan Del Mar eventually felt the evidence for the ABA form was stronger than that for the ABABA version:
http://www.britac.ac.uk/news/review/02-99b/24-
delmar.html. He calls the double repeat 'an appendage (the extra repeat in the scherzo) which had recently become almost 'politically correct', and therefore something of a thorn in the flesh of those musicians who were convinced it was wrong but lacked the evidence to substantiate their instinct.'
I have never heard of any evidence for the Eroica being contemplated in an ABABA form, but what Eric is talking about here is not that, but whether the second part of the A section ought to be repeated. I don't have the Del Mar edition myself, but in the Eulenberg, instead of the usual da capo marking after the trio, the entire A section is printed out again, without a repeat of A'. I would suggest that Beethoven may have suppressed the repeat to maximize the most surprising detail in the return of the scherzo: that is, the switch to 2/2 meter in bars 381-384. Hearing this once would be a real shock if you're not expecting it; hearing it twice that way lessens the sense of surprise.
