yeah.

the whole clicking twice thing confuses me no end!

Basicaly while modeling stuff I have curves and old bits of model all over the scene, most of the time/all of the time I just want to work in few tiny objects. And what I end of doing is selecting those objects, invert the selection and hide all the irelivant objects.

Personaly speeking I would be happy to lose the double click buisiness (on the hide button) and have it so simple even an idiot like myself can figure it out.

So......

Click the "hide" button with left mouse hides what you have selected
Click the "hide" button with right mouse hides the inverted - so select the object you want to work on and hide the stuff you dont want to work on

Ofcourse this brings up the problem of getting all your hidden objects back...im not a fan off adding buttons neadlessly, but ever 3d app iv ever used has a "hide" and a "show all" button.

Maybe is you added a "show all" button the same kinda thing could happen

Click the "show all" button with left mouse un hides everything
Click the "show all" button with right mouse inverted whats being shown - hidden objects become un hidden and and visible objects become hidden?