I never liked Hsu Hao, like at all. However I do think if NRS wanted to they can make him (or any other of the 3D era characters) bad ass if they wanted to. This reminds me of KI before Gargos and Eyedol came out.
People wanted Gargos, then other people always repeated that he was a generic gargoyle s*** tier character that had nothing cool about him and needed to stay gone. The Iron Galaxy was like "Hold my beer" and BAM Gargos was back and he looked and played amazing. People liked him.
With Eyedol it was even worse. For months people said he needed to be in the game because he was the only original KI character not in the new game. Then the opposition like a broken record would always say "No no no he was a garbage a** character that needed to just be forgotten he was stupid " Then Iron Galaxy again, was like "Hold my beer" and BAM Eyedol was back, he looked amazing and his game play was awesome too. The only thing that was questionable was the random stance switch but other than that they made him great.
TLDR: Any character can me remade to be awesome if somebody actually takes the time and effort to do it, even a joke like Hsu Hao. Especially NRS, I feel like they are very talented and could do any of these hated 3d era characters justice if they really wanted to.