Totally normal practice; I do it all the time! Loose hop pellets are indeed a pain (even if you whirlpool, for many people). If you plan to brew a lot of hoppy beers, and are feeling in a DIY mood, you might even build a hop spider. It is convenient for brews with multiple additions of hops, and then you can just pull one item out of the pot, rather than having a handful of wet and squishy hop bags floating around in the kettle.