I have a related question.

What is the best thing for people with no hearing loss but need help in noisy environments?

My partner and I both have difficulty listening to conversations in crowds.

Logic tells me that there must be some noise cancelling devices with directional mics that let you hear just what is in front of you, but querying staff in stores gets me the same bemused look as when I asked about Arm laptops before Apple did one.

Good question, that's something I struggle with as well. And it gets worse as I age.