I don't want to speak for him, but I suppose I am until he pipes up, but I think bobsmooth was being sarcastic.
I agree with the sentiment, I think it's underrated. I live a fairly hedonistic life and I'm overall a very happy and content person. But I think hedonism only brings value in the context of an otherwise stable life at its foundation. You could make the argument that it's the stability that brings me happiness, but I've introspected about this a bunch and the pursuit of pleasure really does bring a large chunk of the sustained happiness.
As an aside, one of the common warnings/issues with hedonism is the hedonistic treadmill; that we become accustomed to our current pleasures and receive diminishing returns. But the way I think I get around that by rotating between various pleasures, so once I come back to one in particular it's once again novel.
Living in the moment is a stated goal of many contemplative disciplines including ones that explicitly eschew any hedonistic tendencies by practicing some flavour of asceticism.
Actually an argument could be made that hedonism can lead you astray from the present moment as your yearnings and desires increase for more and more pleasure the more you try and satiate these desires which usually entails some yearning for some pleasure experience in the future.
Living in the moment it seems is closer to the bullseye in terms of ones ability to experience well being. Hedonism just breeds further desire which by definition gives rise to what Buddhists termed Dukkha which is often poorly translated as 'suffering' but a more apt word would be 'dissatisfaction' (1)
Yes.
>as your yearnings and desires increase for more and more pleasure
Why is this an inevitability? I've lived in my current condo for 2 years and I still enjoy the simple pleasure of standing on the balcony that I own.