It is wire-centric, not user-centric.
Alex Bell patented (specific aspects of) “sound on a wire”. The thing you put to your ear Receives the sound from the wire. The thing you talk to Transmits sound onto the wire (“transmitter”).
Bell was selling a way to put your voice blocks or miles away via a wire. The wire was central to the whole invention. (He didn’t patent the wire, or a good transmitter, but he sure commercialized The Bell System of wires and end-bits.)
For a century all telephony called the ear-thing a receiver.
Many early electric hearing aids WERE telephone parts. So the names carried-on.
The modern balanced-armature receiver is a very developed thing, but more closely related to classic telephone ear-things than any other common audio transducer.