I'm pretty much in the same boat with Defmusicman, I get the same feeling that I live in both worlds. Without a HA on, I can just barely hear, but not audible enough to hear people talking to me in a quiet room. Coming from the past where I used to have almost natural hearing to where it diminished to now, it sometimes is annoying to be apart of both worlds. There are times I want to be social and in with the general public/friends, and there are also few times that I'd like to be left alone away from it.
The way I see it is, that it's pretty much circumstantial for myself. At work, of course I'd want to hear everything and not make any mistakes, because there is a lot of responsibility involved in the job, and one simple mistake can risk the lives of people. Watching TV, it would be nice to be able to understand it rather than having to read the text on the screen because they say things only once and I didn't catch it well.
But perhaps it's influenced from the past "hearing" life that I lived in. There are also times that being HoH has benefits, such as sleeping, evading nagging people, becoming secluded at times.
I'd say for the case that it is circumstantial and different for everyone.