Certainly, because it probably never existed as a function for wheel. Do you have any evidence that the "well duh" criteria wasn't used, and hex wheels show up in the archeological record?

But it comes in handy in the alternate universe where pi=3.

Can you elaborate?

My thinking is that in this alternate universe where pi=3, circles (with diameter 2 * pi * r) will look like hexagons (which have diameter 2 * 3 * r), so wheels would have to be hexagonal.