Hydrazine -- maybe
Secret/cutting edge technology -- definitely
Harm in giving it a shot -- only political

I'm sure a bunch of guys were certain they could hit it and while a miss would have been embarrassing it would not have added to the problem. The only fall-out was the issue with China and it appears they only want info. Personally I don't think anybody really cares if a country shoots down one of their own satellites; although I'd rather the Chinese had shot theirs in a lower orbit so it would burn up rather than acting as more space junk.

What they do care about is the demonstration of an ABM capability. The Chinese demonstrated their capability, now we have demonstrated ours, but from an operational/deployed platform. Star Wars anyone? There about 60 Arleigh Burke destroyers currently in service. Now that we have an ABM capability, we can negotiate it away with a new ABM Treaty or not. Maybe it should be deployed world wide. Put a few in the Persian Gulf. . .