Not hot spares (which you are right, don't reduce array repare downtime): hot swap (which can). If a hot spare gets used you still need to swap out the broken device (its replacement becoming a new hot spare).
Wether you are swapping out a replacement for an active drive or swapping out a dead drive with what will be a new hot spare (a drive that was previously the spare now being an active drive in teh array) whether you have hot-swap or not makes a difference. Without, you have to power down the array for a short time which in an environment that needs availability to be as high as possible could be an issue.
Wether you are swapping out a replacement for an active drive or swapping out a dead drive with what will be a new hot spare (a drive that was previously the spare now being an active drive in teh array) whether you have hot-swap or not makes a difference. Without, you have to power down the array for a short time which in an environment that needs availability to be as high as possible could be an issue.