Will vtkHDF replace the existing vtk XML format?

No, it is not.

“The goal of this work is to provide simulations with a way to save data in the HDF format that could be easily loaded in VTK without the need for an external data description (such as XDMF).”

So, for now we only have a reader for image data and unstructured grid - the idea would be that simulations would write HDF directly.

We are currently working on a reader for AMR data:
https://discourse.vtk.org/t/overlapping-amr-support-in-vtkhdf/7868/3

We might add additional formats and a writer depending on interest and funding.

Dan