I didn’t say BT connectivity is the only criteria. Everyone wants a hearing aid that can deal with their loss. But most premium hearing aids can do that. Why didn’t Phonak just keep trudging along with NFMI then? No need to mess around with BT. But people do want the good hearing plus the ability to deal with phone calls, connect to their computer and other devices directly, etc. - most people agree that TV streaming via BT is FAR superior in voice understanding to just listening via speakers in the room. BT remote microphones are important, too, in difficult hearing situations and thus how well BT works and how long the batteries last can be a factor in what you buy.
ReSound was the first to use BT to communicate with HA’s - now everyone’s doing it. So I don’t think you can say BT isn’t important. It’s driven the industry in the last 10 years or so. Was it the Marvels were so much better HA’s than anything else, including previous Phonaks, or was it the BT connectivity they offered that made all Phonak users have wet dreams (to continue the analogy you started!)?
ReSound itself provides data as to how important BT connectivity is in HEARING decisions. I read (maybe several years ago) that ReSound says 3/4 of its users are iPhone users, only 1/4 Android. Many audiologists, I think even Dr. Cliff formerly, used to tell their patients you’d get a better cell phone BT experience with aids that were MFI capable if you switched from Android to iPhone and a lot of HA wearers did just for that reason. That’s most likely because up until recently Apple MFi provided the best phone/streaming solution as compared to Android - and you got a remote microphone built into your iPhone. So BT does make a difference to hearing capabilities. With the same HA available, people buying ReSound preferentially opted for iPhone over Android whereas the general market share has been about equal or in Android’s favor.
I think saying hearing is most important is a bit illusory. If Phonak came out with a HA next week that was better than the Paradise, most people would still buy any deal like the KS10’s at Costco because it’s a great hearing aid, good enough to deal with most hearing loss (the average is mild to moderate), and the price is INCREDIBLE.
Since HT members are a very decided minority (and if skewed to severe and profound loss, different than most people suffering hearing loss who could benefit from a hearing aid), I don’t think one can say that what HT members want on average is what’s going to drive the industry, especially when the future, as for so many industries, may lie outside North American and Europe. People want good hearing first - but many brands offer that, they want a good price, and they want, (and as the past 10 years or so have shown) even demand good connectivity. NFMI is dead. If BT LE Audio offers greater connectivity advantages, HA’s that offer only BT Classic will be just as dead as the NFMI ones are now.