Olliver,
I would like to point out that apprenticeship is not just about you training a bird, but also hopefully a mentor training you. A hood is at very least a useful piece of equipment- arguably essential for certain types of falconry. Would it not make sense to learn to use one while beginning your falconry training? Saying one wants to be a falconer without learning how to hood is akin to saying you want to train dogs but don't want to use a leash. Learn to hood. You will find it very useful if you fly certain types of birds in the future. At least if you learn how and decide to dispense with it, it is still a "tool" that you can use if you need it. It seems to me you are willing to great efforts to get around training a bird to hood. hooding is not that difficult. Most passage redtails take to it easily. If you end up flying birds where hooding is not important you may decide to forego it in the future, but at least you will have developed the skill early on and have the ability to use it. If there is some problem like depth perception at least give it a try on one bird. Once you are able to hood smoothly I doubt you will see it as a wasted effort to have learned the skill.