A great thread and many good observations.
I'm a HOH formerly with HA and now CI who has been very much in the hearing world (which explains my familiarity). I can see why these things would be puzzling for the deaf.
When I had my HA, I knew they could utilize their voices in ways that were difficult for me to emulate simply because I couldn't hear well enough. I remember when one of my brothers (both were hearing) would tease me with his voice. My brother would do a singsong that sounded very much like my name. He would deliberately "sing" it and leave me guessing was he calling me or doing that stupid singsong to annoy me. If I could heard well enough, I would have known which it was in a heartbeat.
Now with my CI, I can do most of the things they can do (I still can't tell direction of sound too well but another CI might solve that!). I think of Spice's comment about talking to the wall situation. I work in an office and I had a question for a co-work down three offices (out of sight too). I simply called for her from where I sat and asked her my question and she answered from her office and I understood her perfectly. Another thing, I've been finding that I don't look at a person's face as much as I used to do when I used a HA. When you can hear well enough, you can focus much more on what you hear. I really love being able to hear in the dark without seeing a face. That bedeviled me to no end prior to my CI. I would have to tell people turn up the light so I can hear! 
There is so much information in a voice and hearing people use it to the max. Facial expressions don't always match the tone and that can throw anybody off if you can't hear the tone.
