Hi chrisan,
You can overcome the lack of included hood for the DA L model by buying a 3rd party hood which is very close if not an exact replica of the OEM hood for under $6 USD.
Amazon.com: Portable PH-RBG 58mm Lens Hood For Pentax SMCP-DA 55-300mm f4-5.8 ED: Camera & Photo
My choice would be the DA version though because of the Quick Shift focusing. There are two significant advantages with this feature. The more obvious is that you can tweak critical focus after the AF system has locked by simply turning the focus ring to your satisfaction. The less obvious, but possibly more useful aspect of this feature is that you can manually prefocus the lens close to the target distance before activation AF. This makes a focus lock faster and significantly easier for the AF system in low light. If you've ever had a your camera just rack back and forth without being able to lock focus in low light, you know how frustrating that can be. Prefocusing can be accomplished with a lens with no QS feature by either turning the switch on the camera to MF or by pressing and holding the lens release button while manual focusing, but QS is quite significantly more convenient.
Both lenses are excellent for their class, and you won't be regretting getting either. I now have 9 lenses that cover 300mm, with some of them being very rare and expensive. The DA 55-300 is the latest acquired and often gets the call because of its size, light weight, and excellent performance.
Scott