I have had NHS hearing aids for over twenty years now. Current ones via Specsavers. Seen them change from bulky ones to those that are virtually invisible when in place. I take them out at night, and i f I watch tv from my bed I have a wonderful set of earphones that puts the tv sound directly into my ears from that with no-one else disturbed, no matter how loud I have it.
I think that a part of the problem is that people getting hearing aids for the first time, have the idea that they then put them into their ears and everything is wonderful again. This is not the case, and any new hearing aid should be used just for a couple of hours a day at first, slowly increasing this time over the next three or four weeks. This way, there will be no irritation to the ears, and your own brain will slowly acclimatise itself to the noises you are hearing.
Even when getting replacement aid, I do find the first couple of weeks with them quite difficult - then my brain gets together with them and all is okay.
But too many people, seem to give up trying to use hearing aids far too quickly. They also seem to think that paying out vast sums of money for them MUST mean they are better - usually they are not. NHS ones are excellent, but having paid out those vast sums people are more likely to persevere with their use, the 'free' ones from the NHS they just discard.