Why do you say a better idea might have been put forth under a Hughes Presidency? I'm not very familiar with Hughes' political positions, but it seems the GOP was very much against the idea of the League of Nations for what seems, from my reading, to be staunch isolationism.
Views on the League divided the Republican party. While there were some isolationists, there were many who were not, including many prominent ones.
During the 1920 campaign Hughes (along with Harding, Hoover and a number of other big name Republicans) signed a statement that started:
"The question between the candidates is not whether our country shall join in such an association. It is whether we shall join under an agreement containing the exact provisions negotiated by President Wilson at Paris, or under an agreement which omits or modifies some of those provisions that are very objectionable to great numbers of the American people."
Also, as Secretary of State, Hughes worked with the League, advocated that the US join the World Court, and led the Washington Naval Conference. He was in no way an isolationist.
I have a very low opinion of Woodrow Wilson and I think he did a poor job drafting and negotiating the terms of the League in Paris and then did a poor job of selling the agreement to the US.