It looks like the consensus is that it would be fine to remove the "C-xw" as the same commands are also bound in the `search-map' with "M-sh" binding prefix. The added benefit is that "C-xw" binding can be used for something else in future.
This is the first time submitting a patch to emacs. So here it is:
From bed743a154eafbda0c716fbec4c97a58bb973a0f Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
Date: Tue, 28 Jul 2015 21:38:37 -0400
Subject: [PATCH] Remove the "C-xw" bindings from hi-lock-map
---
etc/NEWS | 3 +++
lisp/hi-lock.el | 11 +----------
2 files changed, 4 insertions(+), 10 deletions(-)
diff --git a/etc/NEWS b/etc/NEWS
index 5bb7a00..f3a9e9d 100644
--- a/etc/NEWS
+++ b/etc/NEWS
@@ -289,6 +289,9 @@ standards.
* Changes in Specialized Modes and Packages in Emacs 25.1
+** The C-xw bindings are removed from hi-lock.el as the same commands
+ are bound to the `search-map' in bindings.el
+
** Prog mode has some support for multi-mode indentation.
See `prog-indentation-context' and `prog-widen'.
diff --git a/lisp/hi-lock.el b/lisp/hi-lock.el
index 0255585..d648e30 100644
--- a/lisp/hi-lock.el
+++ b/lisp/hi-lock.el
@@ -272,16 +272,7 @@ a library is being loaded.")
map)
"Menu for hi-lock mode.")
-(defvar hi-lock-map
- (let ((map (make-sparse-keymap "Hi Lock")))
- (define-key map "\C-xwi" 'hi-lock-find-patterns)
- (define-key map "\C-xwl" 'highlight-lines-matching-regexp)
- (define-key map "\C-xwp" 'highlight-phrase)
- (define-key map "\C-xwh" 'highlight-regexp)
- (define-key map "\C-xw." 'highlight-symbol-at-point)
- (define-key map "\C-xwr" 'unhighlight-regexp)
- (define-key map "\C-xwb" 'hi-lock-write-interactive-patterns)
- map)
+(defvar hi-lock-map (make-sparse-keymap "Hi Lock")
"Key map for hi-lock.")
;; Visible Functions
--
1.9.2