Lyxen
Great Old One
I agree that the rules have two things to bear in mind when resolving ability checks related to hiding and that interpreting one as more specific creates problems for the "no metagaming" crowd. But anyway, no thanks. I don't care about "metagaming" and, as it happens, don't create situations for it to occur in the first place in part by employing those two rules in tandem rather than having one supersede the other.
Obviously, if you don't care about metagaming, you don't need the trick of blind rolling, but we've found out that even with very good players (in the sense of being careful with their decision and thinking about their role as a character and player in a positive light for the table), they are influenced/biased if they know they rolled well or if they know someone is watching for them.
You were the one who brought the second one (about the need to roll) in the equation. After that, I sometimes use passive stealth as well as the passive perceptions/etc., or even decide upon a straight success or failure, but honestly I rarely do this because stealth is one of those skills where rolls can mean so many things for the environment to impact on the success or failure that it's often fun.In addition, for specific beats general to apply, the specific rule must contradict a general rule, and I don't think it does in this case because not every attempt to hide needs a roll. Sometimes you just succeed and sometimes you just fail, no roll.