The hiatuses don't affect the quality of the published chapters so I don't see why they should mater this much. And it's again always with HxH that this matter is brought up. Despite this HxH is the only manga with hiatuses in the Top 4 and it's not like it didn't face popular manga. I don't see how FMA being completed makes it better as well, Gintama and One Piece are ongoing. HxH is my favorite manga and I believe it's above average in every way.
Consistency and story: The synopsis is simple
And we have Gon, the kid above, who wants to leave his island, becomes a Hunter(you must pass an exam for that) and find his father, who is a great Hunter himself. From the pages posted above you would be correct to think that they are adventurers. Most Hunters are, but it's much more than that and people desire to get the license for various reasons. Some only want the license to sell it and there are specializations like Hacker Hunter, Jackpot Hunter etc. It's endless.
If you are more familiar with FMA, you could replace Hunter with Alchemist, Gon's quest to find his dad with the Elric Brothers's quest to find the Philosopher's Stone and you have the synopsis.
Jammin said that it lost its path and is random. What he said is true but not entirely. HxH is at heart an adventure-battle shonen(one of the most recent fight won the
Best Battle of 2016 Award here) and
from the: Hunter Exam arc→Heavens Arena arc→York Shin→Greed Island arc→Chimera Ants arc→Election arc and the current one you will notice how different the tone and settings are, more than in most manga of this genre.
Through Gon's quest with his friends and the numerous things he experiences, he gets new goals and Togashi is able to fully exploit the world he created. It's random yes, but it hasn't lost its path because there was never a clear path to begin with. Hunters can do anything.
I agree with what Lambu said about consistency, FMA is certainly more consistent than HxH. If we are talking about generic qualities people look for in a manga, I can't really criticize FMA, there is no chink in its armor, but the series is a solid 8/10 for me. It does what it is supposed to do well but strictly that. The world building is good but it's lacking compared to HxH where there is more freedom and complexity, HxH is far more refreshing(incredible world building in every arc, Nen: arguably the best battle system ever etc.). You will notice for example that it's very hard to subdivide FMA's story into arcs, it's like a succession of good short stories. The characters(who are great) do the rest.
For HxH fans, the favorite arcs are generally York Shin and the Chimera Ants arc. All of them shine in different ways but even if you rate a certain arc lower than the other or maybe dislike some aspects of it, the characters and their interactions at the very least will carry the arc for you. Togashi is that good. HxH is not as consistent, but there is a consistency in that inconsistency(just like Gon actually
). As a whole, it's amazing. Better than FMA and all the other manga/manhwa I have read IMO(I find ToG similar in many ways but not as good).
Characters: I doubt anyone who is familiar with both can tell me that HxH is lacking compared to FMA when it comes to characters. HxH has a bigger cast to begin with and plenty of characters are fleshed out and charismatic, Togashi also likes to put them in extreme situations which leads to some very interesting results(there are more hype moments in HxH than in FMA, prove me wrong if you can). Gon seems like a typical shonen MC at first but it becomes more and more evident as the series progresses that he is far from being generic.
Art: I must talk about the art too because besides the hiatuses its art receives the most critics from fans. There are some sketchy pages here and there due to Togashi's health issues but they are redrawn in the volumes. Chapter 337 is the only exception which comes to mind but it's negligible overall. Art is not just about drawing gorgeous characters and things. I am not saying that his drawings are bad in general or that
he can't do that, at his best Togashi's art is above most shonen manga I read but he excels at other things.
As I said above, I think that HxH is above average in every way. Like all mangakas, Togashi's art evolved over time but anyone who read it can tell that he doesn't have a set style, he is similar to Araki in that regard, the changes are not as drastic but more frequent. My personal belief is that it's the reason why the designs of his characters are so varied. You can find several characters drawn in a different style in every arc. Togashi is also excellent at paneling and at drawing facial expressions(I personally like that a lot). HxH has a good amount of exposition and info dumping in certain arcs(the most recent one in particular) and he is able to cram a lot in a chapter. All of this with simple phrases(fan translations make them more complicated than they are). He has a way with words. As for facial expressions, you can see some good examples in Erin's posts. I could post more but I will do it later since I don't have enough time.
Please vote for HxH
.