Yes, you can ignore the hobbies. There's no rule saying that you have to use them.

It's not enough that everyone gets reset (so they're maxed out needs in the dead of night when you'd just got them on a sleep schedule)

OH GOSH!! I get so irritated with that because I usually like to end my play time when they're all home and in bed (I've had sims never come home and I think it was due to the fact that I saved when they where at work. )

Someone has already made a hack that cancels out the new idle animations. I would post a link but I'm at POM right now.