When editing a sketch, the features on other sketches show thru. If a design is complex, even a few sketches, it fast becomes really hard to work on new ones: You can't drag to select features on the sketch you are working on, because features on other sketches become selected, too. It is very tedious to work on features close but not same as features on other sketches, as the cursor tends to snap on features on other sketches. And so on, you get the idea.
When I hide a sketch, it means I don't want to see it, the contents in it are not relevant to whatever I'm working now! The "hide sketch" should really function as "disable sketch". If this breaks too much of the current workflows, please implement a "disable sketch" (shown as crossed over bulb) to the right click menu of the sketch.