That seems like an odd comparison. And anyway, cochlear implants were developed with human volunteers in the 60s and 70s. Some modern cochlear implant experiments use animals that have been deliberately deafened, and this most certainly raises ethical concerns.

The words "move on" are particularly odd. What do you mean? Should we never look back at what we've already done, and work out how to do it better? That really doesn't feel like progress or to me.