I tried using hard links back in the late nineties when I was new to linux. Instead of creating a second link to the file it copied the file to the new directory. I discovered the problem when I modified one copy and found the second copy, which was supposed to be a hard link, wasn't changed. I don't know what went wrong, but with symlinks available, I just never bothered trying hard links again.

ADDED: Note that I avoided hard links after that, because I was worried about what would happen if I modified one file and deleted it, thinking it was a link to another, when it was actually a copy. A person could lose a lot of work if that happened. At least with a symlink, I know that something is or is not a link.