Nah, it had to exist, otherwise Goku's strategy in the Hit battle wouldn't make sense. There would be no reason to wait until the last moment to use Blue and attempt to finish off everything in one attack if there wasn't a quick significant drain from it.
The manga also adds a comment about how Hit himself could only use his full power for a short while due to not having fought with full strength for so long. That's only necessary due to Goku's own power drop. Looking back, I guess Goku's comment about how Vegeta could have won if he conserved Blue power should be read as conserving Blue power in general like Goku did, not just a complaint about his unnecessary transformation.