I believe the point being made by Felon is that the reason for his current state is of no real importance. The result is what matters. In this case, the result is the whole "Hiro as an child geek" theme that has long since grown old.
You got the point that Mark missed. That Hiro was suffering from some silly strain of "geekspeak aphasia" is just another way to play up Hiro as man-child. Aphasia or not, Hiro couches every situation in terms of his own little fantasy world, and that's what I mean when I say Hiro is stuck in a loop of being portrayed as out-of-touch with reality. This aphasia just takes it up a notch, and more notches in that direction is not what this show needs.
Mark and Dire Bare point out is that he's got some form of aphasia that makes him toss out geek-culture references, but in his head he's thinking normally--but what is normal for Hiro? It's not a mature adult, right?.
I actually empathized with the character back when he was a lowly cubicle drone, because it gave the impression he'd had his full of harsh reality before deciding to escape from it. However, this was all scrapped when it was revealed that Hiro in fact wasn't some average guy who stared directly into bland face of modern workaday life and said "well, this is pretty crappy", but rather he's just some sheltered, rich mamma's boy. Now he's the completely undeserving head of a megacorporation (apparently a privately-traded one) and he's squandering his company's finances to act out his little Dial-a-Hero fantasy.
We're supposed to like HIro simply because he's so innocent and pure and virginal, but do those traits alone really have four years of mileage in them? Don't we at some point need to see a grown man act like....well, a grown man? Even Luke Skywalker and Harry Potter grow up.
I think Charlie was a step in the right direction. Unlike his previous infatuation back in the Tokugawa era, this wasn't some asexual fairy-tale romance. I think he was actually feeling a trickle of testosterone there. Heck, he actually got devious enough to outwit Sylar. But then they threw her away again. She's probably somewhere in limbo playing Go-Fish with Peter's Irish ex-girlfriend.
While I do think Felon is missing part of what's going on here . . . he does have a point, even if I would word it differently (and not be nearly as annoyed at it as he is). What's happening to Hiro now is not the same as what has happened to Hiro in the past . . . . but it is another "Hiro nerf" that is portrays Hiro as silly and childlike in a way. And as much as I love Hiro's character, I do find myself getting tired of the Master of Time and Space being nerfed several times per season.
I read in a "Save Heroes" blog post at some point that Hiro needs to be killed off . . . . I'm not sure I agree with that, but something has to happen to stop the annoying cycle of a powered Hiro constantly getting nerfed, regaining his powers, only to get nerfed again.
I agree with much of this. The worst part about the brain tumor nerf is that right from the get-go you know that it's just a stop-gap solution. In the unlikely event that Heroes is on the air years from now, we're not going to have a Hiro with a brain tumor.
The time-space powers are a huge boondoggle. The main reason to have them around seems to be to indulge in endless flashbacks and flash-forwards, and this just shifts the focus off the big trouble area: the here and now. You have all of these ominous portents in the past and the future, but in the present nobody wants to do anything. Claire, Noah, Parkman, Peter, et al are fixated on living normal, mundane lives. They don't see any big picture at work, so they always have to be heavily prodded to get involed with the plot (usually as a result of someone attacking them).
Which brings us to the great thing that Hiro can bring to the show, which is that unlike everyone else he actually wants to go off and do big things that will entertain the audience. That's what should be fixated on. Have Hiro take a few steps back, look out what a clueless schmuck he's been, come to terms with some of the ugly facts of life, and then resolve to do something about it that's more ambitious than Dial-a-Hero. While he's at it, he can rally others to his side. Now you have the essential ingredient for a good story: compelling character motivations.
