I would say Hiashi is a worse father, but a better head of the clan from the evidence we’re given in canon.
Hiashi is a worse father partly in fact because he’s laser-focused on the well-being/prestige/power of the Hyuuga clan. If Hinata doesn’t benefit the clan, she’s worthless, absolute garbage.
In contrast, while Fugaku isn’t exactly demonstrative with his affection (understatement), some sense of his affection/attachment to his children *as* his children still comes across to me. Crucially, while he definitely sees Sasuke as *less*, he doesn’t see him as *nothing*.
Hiashi of course has the advantage of having a brain-scrambling curse that he uses to keep his branch servants in line, but he does seem to be fairly competent at it. The Hyuuga seem to a materially prosperous clan, large in numbers, wealthy by ninja standards, highly respected.
In contrast, the Uchiha are a hot mess, internally bickering, swinging back and forth between pro-Konoha and anti-Konoha. Fugaku’s anti-Konoha coup idea was stupid, and his planning for it was even worse. He apparently missed that his clan had been infiltrated by spies, not just his own son the double agent. Can you imagine Fugaku leading Konoha? He’d be more incompetent than Hiruzen.
Fugaku doesn’t seem to have charisma, he’s not shrewd, he’s not discerning, he’s not intuitive, he just lacks all the necessary qualities of a leader in this kind of environment.
Hiashi has immoral goals and methods but he is effective at reaching his goals through his methods, which makes him a superior leader in a sense.
If Hiashi were allowed real redemption (instead of “sorry about letting your dad be killed, never telling you the truth, and scrambling your brain all those times, my b” to Neji and bupkis to Hinata), I think he could still be an effective leader, because he does seem to have a certain aura of command. I can’t imagine him ever being close to Hinata, but he could have come to express quietly his admiration for her accomplishments and acknowledge his failure to perceive her value. But instead the ending gave him a personality-ectomy.
This gif never gets less horrifying.
Gonna quote @takigakure again: “Your grandfather used to be very strict” WAS HE, HINATA? WAS HE STRICT???
Cheloneuniverse 