Hildibrand made me cringe. It took me a long time to unlock those trials because I just... hated doing the quests. Ugh.

That said I don't really care whether he's in the game or not, so long as there's an alternative sidequest for people who think Hildy is kinda... bleugh. 3.x got it right with the Scholasticate sidequests being available as well, and I was quite upset when a couple of patches didn't have anything for the scholasticate but has more "hildy getting thrown around by his buff dad with no clothes on and landing upside down in the snow".

Basically it's my opinion that since people like that stuff, yeah it should be available, but there should also be something else for people who don't like it.
I'd do more hildibrand for Greg though. Greg makes it all worth it.