I think that a category measuring not the time, but the number of hops would work better with this game since there are no cuts or skips. I understand that it would mean lots more work for the mods but I think it suits this game better than the current categories.

Am I correct to assume this idea is intended for the ILs and not the full game categories? Because those have pretty obvious factors affecting your time (e.g. strategic deaths/percentage goals in Unlock Kiwi, minimizing deaths in Complete the Game).

From a speedrunning perspective, taking extra hops to go around discs will often be faster than standing still and waiting for them to pass to minimize your hops, due to the Superhot-style slowdown when you're not moving. It's also usually faster when you can move continuously without having to stop & think—if you end up taking a few extra hops because you didn't stop to analyze the most efficient path, it'll still be worth it if the analysis would've taken more time.

Obviously, you still don't want to take a bunch of unnecessary hops, as that'll add to your time, but figuring out when to keep moving versus when it's best to stop & think is one of the tradeoffs the player needs to make in real time. It's a substantial part of speedrunning the levels in this game, as opposed to simply trying to beat them (a fair accomplishment in its own right).

So, a minimum hops category doesn't make sense as the main category because it'll generally be slower. It does make sense as a sort of low% category, but the hassle involved in counting the hops is just too much to make it worthwhile imo. Also, the game is hard enough that I doubt many people would be inclined to try the category over just completing the levels.