I never thought to try to pitch on that play as I always just used it as an off tackle run and it worked pretty well.
As far as turning other formations into a wildcat I haven't done this as I'm a spread option guy so my QBs are great runners anyway. For me, the biggest issue with wildcat plays is that HBs can't audible. This is true of actual wildcat plays (and even then, using a QB still won't allow you to audible to other plays, but at least you can still flip the play if you want) but it's also true of using a HB as the QB to make your own wildcat. I'm big on formation audibles so if I wanna run right and the right is stacked, then I'll audible to a run to the left (these are usually calling a counter and audibling to a sweep and vice versa) or up the middle (I have 3 HB dives as formation audibles so I never call a dive as I'll call a sweep or counter or read option instead and then if the box isn't full, I'll just audible to my dive). With a HB at QB you can't do any of this.
Since my QBs are almost as effective at running as my HBs I don't have any HBs taking the snap, but if I didn't have good scramblers I might try this out.