I think tha with some situations, no matter what the make the characters do, it's a lose lose situation. Because if Hope just watched his mother die, then shrugged his shoulders saying "lets go save the cocoon, Vanille". Wouldn't we all be saying "You heartless barstard. Your mother just die and you don't even shed a tear".
What it comes down to is that people WANT to hate Hope. Either by saying he's realistic or because he's "annoying" and "whines". Really, he's been a doomed character from the day he was introduced. People saw him and said: "Yup, we'll hate him. He's a kid. He HAS to be hated! It's FF tradition! Who cares if he has a good reason or not, who cares if he's well developed, it's a kid, HATE HATE HATE!!!".
Save yourself the effort, I say, *Devore*. I've tried before, it's useless. *shrugs*
I liked Snow. I wasn't a fan at first, and rarely used him in my team unless I either had to or I required a sentinel, but as a character I found he had some of the best one-liners (my favourites being around the time that all the characters are finally together). I would never say he was anything like Tidus, though, who I felt combined all the bad traits of any FF character ever. Voice, intelligence, looks (girly + young looking), annoying moments, whiney, brooding, urgh. You name it, he had it done badly. Snow has some things that don't go his way - intelligence being the obvious one and he had some annoying moments, too - but at the same time, he wasn't a complete dumbass - he did, after all, cotton on to the fact that people would be massacred if they didn't fight back at the beginning of the game. He didn't spend time brooding over mistakes (well, not as much as anyone else in the game) but instead hardened himself with determination, his voice was easily one of the best in the game, his looks were far more manly than Tidus could ever be even at 40, and I don't think he really whined much at all, if ever. And Snow had better comic value with his idiocy, too, especially with the banging into a certain forcefield repeatedly throughout the story.
I liked pretty much all the characters, although some had poorer moments. I basically think Snow's character was one that, should I attempt to think of ways to change for the better, I would struggle to come up with them.
Bow before the mighty Javoo!