I personally think Hinata is very likable who deemed her worthiness as a female character. Hinata does have good development only when it revolves to Naruto However the problem is that it's been onesided. It's true overtime, what triggers Hinata to not give up and become full fledge shinobi is Naruto since they both share something commons. Hinata even developed her feeling for Naruto, from being shy to being motivated. Naruto even stood up for her. However I can not negate the fact that she was solely used for Naruto, that's all she's really good for.
This is why I have problem with NH is the fact that they never spend time together to get this point to the story. When they do, someone like Neji death was BS because he never gets any screen time in Part 2 and there was no buildup the so called "Bond" that Naruto speak of. What's worse is that right after Neji died, Naruto had BM chakra powerup up the wazoo, and this shows that Kishi doesn't care about anyone beside Naruto. Sadly enough Neji was nothing more but a plot device for NH.
So for that, I had to blame Kishimoto for downplaying Hinata. Even the Anime did more justice than the manga.