Yeah, he was slowly going insane, that's for sure. It was somehow ironic that he said that he wouldn't fall into the same traps as Norman Osborn did, but still might after all. But I still think there was a coldness to the Hobgoblin that made him insanely cool.
By the way, I wonder when those Hobgoblin issues by Stern are coming to Comixology? I have them in paper form, but in Swedish, and I would love to have them digitally.