I feel like this is something the site has needed for a long time. A lot of people have used the block ability to remove uninteresting users, unaware of what they're actually doing. This is exactly what they need. Choosing to "hide" users wouldn't block users. It would only remove their posts from your public feed. You could still access their posts and content if you wanted to, it would just give you a warning beforehand. Also, unlike blocking, hiding users would not effect anything about how they can access your profile. They shouldn't even be able to tell a difference.

So, as a result, "hiding" users would be cosmetic alternatives to blocking them, removing their content from the feed, and nothing else. It can also be seen as a parallel to subscribing, another way of creating your own algorithm.