I feel that these lives aren't nearly as useful if you are grouping/raiding a lot where opportunities to use hires are low to non-existent, but buffing your pseudo-permanent pets and magical summons is always useful and you did say you solo a lot. You'll definitely notice a difference in the lower levels between having these and not. The trick, just like when it comes to your own power, is combining multiple sources of boosts. So every little bit, while it may seem unexciting on its own, becomes a great package when all bundled together.
If you don't plan on also using the summoning feats, gear, and enhancement trees that give benefits to summons/pets/hires (Warlock and Harper), it may not be worth it to grab these right away because they won't do much just on their own, especially the higher in level and difficulty you go. I'd say if you will use summons/hires every life then I'd rank these up there with the other generally useful lives like barbarian and paladin, though I would probably still want to get both of these ones fully stacked before druid lives, at least beyond the first for class completionist. That's just me though. YMMV.