One question I'd have about experimental hybrids is, how would you know what the animal's body type and behavior "should" be? Not to mention potential health issues that might not crop up until the animal is well into adulthood? Mules have been around for a long time, so we know what their personality and needs are. If you cross a carpet with a ball, do you get an animal that likes to climb, or one that likes to hang out in dark holes? Behavior that would be normal for one species could be a sign or stress or illness for the other, so in the case of a hybrid, how would you know?
Supposedly ligers are prone to psychological issues because lions are stressed by being alone and tigers are stressed by having company. Ligers are sometimes stressed by both, which makes it hard to make them happy. Ligers also grow larger than either lions or tigers because the various genes that limit growth come from different parents in the two species, so the hybrid keeps growing and then ends up with a higher rate of health problems because the rest of its physiology isn't adapted to be that big.
So in the case of a mule, both parents are domestic animals that live in similar settings and eat similar food and like to be in herds; the hybrid is an animal that (in addition to being a very good draft animal) is generally able to lead a healthy, happy life. In the case of a liger, the hybrid is an animal that is highly likely to be miserable, despite the best efforts at caring for it.
So hybridizing animals for the novelty of it seems ethically dubious to me if the result might well be that it's hard to tell what the hybrid's needs might be, and it might have unpredictable growth and health issues that you can't really solve once it's born.
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