I don't think emphasizing the angle of the hips is the correct approach. I don't tell my students to "rotate your hips to 45 degrees. I teach them how to get a good forward stride leading with the knee, and following with the back leg not turning the back foot sideways. When you do that, the hips can't help but rotate to 45 as the front leg leads outward. Hip rotation is just something that happens, not something to focus on. It is a symptom, not a cause of good mechanics.
Correct, it’s not rotate the hips. I believe in total body, and not turning it in pieces like rotating the hips separately. I do believe in the center focus, just like martial arts focus as an energy zen approach. The coordination comes out of the center. The pelvis position is important.