I think this reading falls into a recurring problem that often appears in discussions about Hinata: holding her responsible for narrative and moral obligations that the story itself never places on her.
It's true that Neji indirectly implies that he and Hinata were much closer as children before the clan's politics poisoned their relationship. It's also true that Hinata witnessed the effects of the Hyuga system firsthand, including the incident involving the Branch Family curse mark being used against Neji. But jumping from those facts to the conclusion that Hinata "should have fought the system" or that her failure to do so represents some kind of moral failing ignores her actual position within the story.
Because the real question isn't, "Why didn't Hinata change the system?" It's, "Did she even possess the authority or social standing necessary to do so in the first place?"
The manga answers that question quite clearly.
Hinata herself was a victim of that system.
When we're first introduced to her, we learn that her father considered her a failure as the clan heir and had effectively replaced her with Hanabi. Hiashi does not present her as the future leader of the Hyuga clan. He presents her as a disappointment. Even Kurenai describes her family situation as painful and complicated.
In other words, the story does not present Hinata as part of the authority oppressing Neji. It presents her as someone being rejected by that very same authority.And that distinction is extremely important.
The argument assumes that witnessing Neji's punishment should have pushed her toward rebelling against the system, but that assumption completely ignores both her age and her psychological state.
We're talking about a child who grew up in an environment that constantly told her she was weak, incapable, and disappointing. The manga does not portray Hinata as someone lacking empathy. It portrays her as someone lacking self-confidence.
Those are two very different things.
In fact, one of the most important aspects of the Neji vs. Hinata fight is that Hinata never responds to his hatred with hatred of her own. This is something people often overlook.
When Neji begins attacking her psychologically and humiliating her in front of everyone, she doesn't retaliate in kind. And when she speaks about his suffering, she doesn't do it to mock him. She does it because she sees the pain he's trying to hide behind his philosophy of fate.
Ironically, the statement that triggered Neji's anger wasn't even hostile.
Hinata simply points out that he himself suffers because of his fate and continues trying to resist it.
In other words, she was one of the very few people who actually understood the source of his emotional conflict.That doesn't sound like the behavior of someone who doesn't care about her cousin.
As for the claim that Neji showed compassion toward Hinata while she showed nothing comparable toward him, that's an extremely selective reading of the events.
Because compassion isn't limited to choosing not to strike someone.
During the Chunin Exam fight, Neji was the physically stronger party, while Hinata was the weaker one. Yet despite that, the character who spends the entire confrontation trying to understand the other person is Hinata, not Neji.
Neji reduces her to a "failure who can never change her destiny."
Hinata, meanwhile, sees a wounded human being behind his anger. That's a form of empathy no less meaningful than any supposed physical mercy.
As for the claim that Hinata never performed any noble or selfless actions unrelated to Naruto, it simply doesn't align with the text.
Because the foundation of Hinata's admiration for Naruto was not romantic love at first. It was the fact that she saw someone who suffered just like she did and kept trying despite repeated failure.
That trait—empathy toward those who are marginalized and struggling—exists within her character before any romantic development ever occurs.
Reducing all of her actions to "she only does this because of Naruto" doesn't actually explain her behavior. It ignores huge portions of her characterization.
But perhaps the most interesting point is that this argument criticizes Hinata for failing to fix the Hyuga system, while the manga itself ultimately frames the reconciliation between the Main Branch and the Branch Family as a responsibility shared by Hiashi and Neji after the truth surrounding Hizashi's death is revealed.
In other words, the narrative never treats the issue as Hinata's responsibility in the first place.
And Kishimoto never wrote it that way.
That's why I think the core of this argument confuses two completely different ideas:
Hinata lacking the power to change the system, and Hinata lacking the desire to change it.
The manga repeatedly confirms the first.
There is no real evidence for the second.
In fact, everything we see in the story suggests that Hinata was one of the people most harmed by the system itself, and that her resistance did not take the form of political revolution, but rather the form of psychological survival in an environment that spent her entire childhood trying to convince her that she had no value.
And that, in itself, was the central challenge of her character from the very beginning.
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