Headphones: legal. Hearing aids: not.
Blame the government, not the company that's following the rules laid down.
Is a phone with optical zoom, a "vision-enhancing device" and regulated like eye wear?
In-ear devices with speaker and mic that look like hearing aids that perform hearing aid function for those with hearing loss? Hearing aids.
Phones, that look nothing like glasses or contacts, and don't serve the same purpose? Obviously not.
Don't be silly. Judges aren't.
They aren't. Different classes of medical or medical-adjacent products in the US have to be careful how they market so they aren't making claims that they are not allowed to make, but the absence of those claims alone doesn't make a regulated device unregulated.
“The only obligation which I have a right to assume is to do at any time what I think right.”
By that definition every TWS with transparency mode and parametric EQ is a hearing aid.
There are many dangerous unregulated things that can destroy your hearing or vision. But they don't claim to protect them.
If Apple tried to do this in the past in the US, they would have made it illegal to buy AirPods without a prescription, which is obviously a regulatory nonstarter.
OP is still right here. The argument stands.