My advise....
Ditch the idea of a hi-lift. Sorry, I used them on and off for years, but after seeing too many incidents with them I just can't bring myself to use them anymore. Most vehicles these days don't have appropriate bumpers and/or rocker protection for using them as a jack, so you basically have to carry another jack to change a tire anyways....
#1. Learn how to properly air down your tires for the terrain you are in. This one change makes the NUMBER ONE difference in vehicle performance off road hands down. If your airing your tires down properly you should have the ability to air them back up. It doesn't have to be fast, but you need to be able to do that. Even a small $80 MV-50 compressor goes a LONG ways.
#2. Tow strap and good tow points. You might have to wait a while, but someone will probably come along eventually and tug you out. If you do give a tug to random stuck people you find on roads your karma goes up and you should have pretty good luck getting a tow when you need it
#3. The jack and stack. Being able to jack the vehicle up and stick something under the tires will get you out of a lot of bad situations. You need a quality jack with a lot of stroke. This isn't that common in a small light package. The stock Toyota mechanical screw bottle jack really isn't a bad design. Some Ford trucks and land rovers had a hydraulic dual stage bottle jack that is pretty nice. You don't see it that commonly in the US but a system like this could be very handy.....
Having a way to jack the tires up without having to be under the vehicle would be pretty nice. I have seen some hi-lift adapters to do the same thing, but they where clunky and the risk of having the top of the jack slip into the body is a big concern.
#3. Winch style recovery. Sometimes you just get yourself into a situation you really do need a winch. Most of these situations aren't planned or you probably wouldn't have benn there in the first place! Electric self-recovery winches have gotten REALLY affordable over the last few years. For a lot of mild self recovery use a winch in the BACK of the vehicle isn't a bad way to go. If you have a hitch already you can buy/make a mount that works pretty well. There are some compact short drum winches on the market now that would work really well for that purpose. The one thing I always hated with multi-mount winches was that they are generally HEAVY and hard to move around in bad conditions. Think about in the snow, ice, or mud.