Hidden variables are more about finding a way to derandomize quantum physics. The state |00> + |11> can collapse to |00> or |11> when measured. It appears to be that this randomness is baked into reality (God, meet dice, etc), and many people find this a bit distasteful, because it means measurements propagate faster than light (even if Alice and Bob can't communicate that info). If it turns out the theory is incomplete and there are missing/hidden variables, then it means whether it was |00> or |11> was determined from the start, before the measurement was made, and there's no faster-than-light interaction. Experiments around Bell's inequality prove that hidden variables don't exist, unless we start getting into scenarios that are as weird as entanglement itself. So the cat is truly alive and dead at the same time, and superposition is physically happening; this property is called quantum contextuality and is related to Bell/etc but still another discussion.
The important distinction in this case is about FTL existing but not being able to exploit it for FTL communication.
The important distinction in this case is about FTL existing but not being able to exploit it for FTL communication.