A good part of our Deaf cultural community in Toronto, and in Canada, wears hearing aids. To be cultural Deaf doesn't mean to hear nothing. There are people who are audiologically hard of hearing who identify as Deaf because they use ASL to communicate and they are part of the culture.
Deaf culture has little to do with the audiology of it. The dB number isn't that important.
We have people with CI's in our community. The point is ASL. Culture is rooted in language.
Having said that. I don't feel I need a CI or want a CI, in part because I have my language and my culture. There is no void in my life and no barriers to what I want to do.