Chris Masters has less heat than Randy Orton. How does that qualify as "close"?
Rey is rumored to be coming over to Raw in the next draft, so HHH has to stay heel to go against Rey. Besides, if heel HHH doesn't make anyone look good, how is face HHH going to do it? He's practically a face now as it is (winning clean, overcoming the odds, chasing the title), so the only difference would be going over heels instead of faces. I wouldn't exactly call that freshening up his character.