Yeah, I just never understood the new regime's theory that removing basically all of the characters from the previous regime was a good idea. There are plenty of other romantic options for Aiden other than Hope (Jennifer or Nicole to name two) not to mention I would much rather have had Aiden be the resident lawyer in town than suddenly having Belle get a law degree offscreen (if anything, it would have made sense to have Shawn be the lawyer since years ago that is what he was interested in doing and he even worked for Mickey, but I digress). Plus, Aiden's son is here in town so there's story possibility there. They could have expanded some friendships for him. It's not like he could only be tied to Hope.