You can remove the payment_ view from the checkout workflow option under the main tab of the configuration to remove the payments from the checkout.
Unpublishing all the payment plugins will just block the checkout and display an error message that there is no payment methods available if you have the view payment in the checkout workflow.
You can find more information about that option on that page:
www.hikashop.com/support/documentation/5...hop-config.html#main
