We consider the hierarchical disordered pinning model studied in (J. Statist. Phys.66 (1992) 1189–1213), which exhibits a localization/delocalization phase transition. In the case where the disorder is i.i.d. (independent and identically distributed), the question of relevance/irrelevance of disorder (i.e. whether disorder changes or not the critical properties with respect to the homogeneous case) is by now mathematically rather well understood (Probab. Theory Related Fields148 (2010) 159–175,...