The initial API submitted for the low-level API of HOQ had two features that was taken away I would like to see it back in place with respect that it's my name on the code.
1. The beginner can right know if not careful lock the CPU and it would loose performance. The initial API made sure that couldn't happen.
2. Every other HOQ call of visible objects was skipped for the sake of performance the old pixel count could be retrieved and used instead.
3. The rendering loop still don't automatically execute the HOQ calls on nodes that has a HOQ handles assigned to them, which would be something to expect from an 3D engine.
For HOQ and view frustum culling to work on instanced draw calls Ogre badly needs stream out feature.