I was able to B* my TU hard pulls as recently as early this year (maybe ten months ago). I successfully nudged all of the HPS off my TU report via smartcredit.com, and then hit up the CC-issuers who target TU (since I'm in the Northeast, basically everybody pulls TU for me except Citi and AmEX). It worked, but a month later the pulls were back, and I was no longer able to B* them with smartcredit.com. I've never tried to B* the other two bureaus.

My TU only shows 6 HPS in the last two years (due to the hits aging off) and none in the last six months, so I'm no longer trying this.