I've been following the Hope debates closely and been on both sides. I initially was all for Hope 2.0 because of my natural aversion to automatic success mechanics. However, I can completely see Hope 1.0's POV on this.... they loved having a narrative driving mechanic that could say "screw you" to an unlucky dice roll during a crucial heroic narrative moment where a random failure just feels wrong.
Now that I've done some playtesting at the table, I'm coming around again to Hope 2.0 again. I now realize that it's primary role is to invoke a distinctive feature for inspiration. You generally aren't going to "waste" hope on a roll that isn't inspired (but the game gives you that option just to be flexible, which is a benefit). One of the bigger critiques was that hope will frequently be wasted (either it would have succeeded anyway, or won't be enough to push the roll over in a lot of cases). That is more true with +1d, but when you are primarily using it for +2d, suddenly that is a bigger splash. An average increase of +6 (not to mentioned increase chance of bonus successes!!) means that it's on average powerful enough to mostly succeed on an otherwise difficult roll that is critical, or make an average roll almost guaranteed in a "narrative" moment (while still allowing slim chance of failure). In other words, it's not that far away from what 1st ed hope was doing, it's just now tied to a distinctive feature and inspiration. I think this is even "more" thematic, as well as making trait management easier. I'm more inclined to allow a player to "stretch the definition" a bit to apply a distinctive feature to a roll when I know it will cost him a hope point and thus not done lightly. IMO, that makes that subjective trait mechanic that was my bugbear with some players in 1st edition much easier to manage and tame.
Basically, I'm finding that a lot of the mechanics I was dubious about at first are much better than I thought when I actually see them in action in the context of the rest of the system. I don't think I've ever had a game where I've had to change my mind from my initial take as much.