thisisnotaspoon, the main reason that hope went to a narrower hub/back end was so the rear wheel was dish-less, ie making a strong and less flexing wheel!
Which is how “boost” came about to try and make 29″ wheel less flexy by reducing dish and making the “base” of the spoke distance wider. (29″ flex, which was the biggest draw back I could see when 29″ first came out all those years ago and happened from the start of 29″ development, so I am really surprised it taken them so long to sort it out/come up with something better!!) and why they didn’t go straight to DH/150 spacing I don’t know.
Out of the 2 I would say Hope is better as it is Narrower so better heel clarance/Q factor
I don’t think that’s entirely the right story.
The Last Fastforward is 135mm and dishless for example, the HB160 is a similar concept, they’ve just combined it with eliminating the tolerances on the disk side (there has to be room between the calliper and spokes, and the calliper has to have a few mm of adjustment, neither of which are defined by any standard).
Specialized do (or did) this too, their bikes came with wheels dished a few mm off center to center the rim closer over the flanges.
Boost also pushes the cassette out past 650b+ tyres, no idea if that was the reason or if 29ers were the driving force.
Equally, Hope’s 130mm shows 141mm hubs aren’t actually necessary to make a stiff wheel.