One of the questions the Costco Audiologist asked me after the exam..."are you prepared to wear these all the time?". No, I just wanted to wear them in public, my piece of schidt cell phone, or social situations (rarely). He flat out stated, "You probably won't be happy with your 1500 dollar investment then. You need to wear them all the waking hours." I thought that was very honest of him (they don't work on commission anyway) so I thanked him and walked. Wife is still pissed. Even before covid, it's usually 2 weeks between visits by friends who are deaf as me, people I want to talk to call my landline which I can hear, and I only go to town once a month for fuel and parts and a burger. Who needs it?
Costco has spent a lot of money on training for their techs for a reason, there's a lot to learn. You're paying for their expertise. If you don't use it, you're wasting your money. Their job is to help you get the most out of some very expensive equipment and if you ignore them, you're wasting it all.
The brain has to adapt to them. You can't hear in certain frequencies and the aids are designed to bring in other frequencies that are close to what you're missing. But, the aids can't do it alone. The brain has to learn to adapt to the new frequencies. It will but you have to wear the things to enable it to do so.
