> the message they gave was that Bell test experiments proved that hidden variable interpretations were impossible and that the probabilistic reality of particles was undeniably true
This isn't actually the case - Bell's theorem and subsequent verification demonstrate only that a theory of local hidden variables cannot be successful - the local part means that faster than light information transfer doesn't occur. You're allowed to have a pilot wave interpretation if it's nonlocal.
I think this is actually a problem with these experiments - it's nice that they work, but we already knew pilot wave mathematics could describe quantum mechanics, with the caveat that nonlocality is necessary to explain everything. I don't think this nonlocality is (or can be) expressed in the fluid experiments, so presumably they can't actually replicate QM.