Water is always set to drain away from the house. The issue is what to do with the water that pools around the outside of the wall in the soil. There needs to be a way to remove it. Even on a plateau or a hill water will find its way to the lowest point, sometimes even traveling against gravity and uphill through pressure applied in seams and voids.
Here in central Texas most houses that have split levels have a French Drain at the perimeter which is day lighted downhill, which eliminates the need for a sump pump set up.
However when you have a true basement, there is usually a sub slab French drain and a perimeter French drain which are routed to an interior sump pit/pump.
In 26 years in Central Texas I have never installed a residential sump set up in a split level "hillside" house as there has always been a means to remove water through gravity.
We install sump pits in elevator pits all the time, although those are too small to warrant any type of individual drainage system.
In the example I gave with the Hilton, the sub floor French Drain was installed with gravel but it was mixed with wet limestone fill creating an almost concrete like encapsulation of the drain pipe which did not allow the sub slab drain system to work. On top of that, the wall waterproofing failed due to poor install and improper exterior wall drainage system installation. The amount of water infiltrating was too great for the sump pit/pump set up they had.
The solution was to cut into the floor and install an entirely new sub floor French drain system, an additional sump pit/pump, and enlargement of the existing sump pit/pump set up. The basement walls had to be treated from the inside with a crystallizing waterproofing element to keep them from weeping. Additionally, the walls received over 800 core holes which were fitted with an interior pvc manifold system that fed down into the sub slab drain.