Wow. Good to know I'm not just going crazy. I score above average on hearing tests, being able to hear higher frequency tones even with 30, but I already have problems hearing someone talking into a direction away from me.
My mother has it but won't get it checked and won't get a hearing aid. The slightest bit of noise to her is like the world is roaring and we are all mumbling.
I also worked with a guy who had almost no hearing in one ear and he was similar where any bit of noise and that was it he was gone no longer able to hear.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2787079/
I have experience the other way I worked evening shifts in a casino and I learned to hear through noise through crowds and could understand a person. I could hear someone ten feet away in a roaring crowd most times I could tell they were looking for help but I could hear them too.
We all have hearing loss as adults just past our teens we all lose the low 20Hz end and the high 20KHz end of our hearing that's normal.
My mother said as a teenager she listened to her transistor by holding it against her left ear. Now she can't hear high sounds out of her left ear but she can hear mid range and low range sounds perfectly.
I don't think anyone is trying to be an asshole. It's strange how we as a society can't say to a person you may have hearing loss but we can say to a person your eyes are bad maybe you need glasses.