That is a gorgeous quilt. I don't do hand quilting, so my opinion is not worth much, but I would take out the batt and use one that was better for hand stitching. I have removed machine quilting from many a quilt because I didn't like the way it was looking, so I somewhat appreciate the frustration, but I always feel much better starting again with the opportunity to do better. You have done so much work making a truly excellent top, and now you feel that your hand quilting is suffering because of the batt, so it seems to me that replacing the batt will make you much happier.