[jacobolus]

Hexagonal pixel grids have been used for decades by many different people for various GIS/mapping applications. If you do a google scholar search you will find hundreds of relevant papers. They’re still uncommon compared to square grids, because they are less convenient in several ways, and less familiar – every part of our culture (textiles, architecture and construction, mechanical engineering, urban planning, writing and books, furniture, visual art, toys, cartography, circuit boards, computer displays, abstract mathematics, ...) is deeply rooted in rectangular grids.

Like most tools/conventions, there are trade-offs involved.