DonM For now I have put a 23 degree 7 wood in the bag. Too soon to tell if it’s better than a hybrid for me.
I'm just the opposite. I've played a couple of courses with long, thick rough and I have a 4-day member-guest on one of them coming up in a couple of weeks. Coming out of the rough with the 7 wood was a crapshoot on the ball flight including pop-ups with the club sliding under the ball.
I bought a 20* Adams 3 hybrid from Eguller and I feel I've given up some distance (from the fairway) over the 7 wood. But it's given me consistently better ball striking and it's straighter from the rough especially with 'bad' lies. As summer drags on and the roughs thin out, I'll probably revert back to the 7 but for now I have something in my tool bag that works as intended.