Yes, my son wears hip protection, and it has protected him after an injury and saved him from quite a few possible injuries.
He uses the Skating Safe hip gel pads, and anchors them under a pair of UnderArmour frosty tights he wears under regular skating pants. The UnderArmour pants also help support the groin muscles, etc, and our physiotherapist has told him to wear them for that purpose. You can't see the Skating Safe ones at all, and he can walk away from a crash that makes people come running to see if he's in one piece.
He also uses the knee ones, and the tailbone one now that he's working on his triples. The tailbone one helps with the impact that otherwise jars his back.