A very unscientific opinion, but to me, as long as it's not overpowering, a little bit of hum and hiss is like the sound of your gear talking to you.

(No, I have not been drinking!)

It wouldn't fit in my recessed Tele cupjack without modifying and led me to reversing the Strat jack too. Yep, I had one of those too :

When I started playing way back in the mid-60s, this 60 cycle hum business wasn't ever talked about as it was typical of most guitars and basses. No one other than those with an electronics background would even know the 'proper' name/source and even for those of us who did, it was a big nothing for all intents and purposes.

As my peers and I progressed over the years, the vast majority of us ultimately gravitated towards Fenders and Gibsons as our #1 brands of choice. Between these two, we then wound up settling into one 'camp' or the other. Here too, the single coil hum was never really recognized. Rather, it was simply a given that most Gibsons didn't hum and most Fenders did. Either way, this too was irrelevant.

Three points here:

1. It is a blessing to my ilk that 60 cycle hum doesn't bother us one way or the other as a lot of tonality gets squelched when a humbucker (HB) replace a single coil (SC).

2. It is a shame that pickup manufacturers have hammered away at the general guitar playing populace over the years that 60 cycle hum is evil and must be eradicated by tossing your SCs and purchasing their stacked HBs with now, a predetermined sound. Compound this with all the chains of foot pedals (preamps) we older folk never had and now, all younger players are very sensitive to this 60 cycle hum as all these preamps do is just ramp it up exponentially.

3. I've said this before: Once the rest of the band joins in, 60 cycle hum is never heard.

Anyone have any other thoughts on the subject?