Sounds very like ear pro are a very good idea for your ears. Good call.
Mine, not so much. I get none of the bad effects you describe, for which I'm grateful. I shoot mostly rifles with silencers, .223 and .30-06, from very soft to full power loads. Ten and a half to twenty seven inch barrels. I don't really find ear pro very comfortable after a while so I'm lucky for the supressors. Really makes a difference.
I dont like the ear plugs either, and I really dislike the muffs (especially when shooting long guns), which are usually less effective anyway. But the alternative isnt somethng you want to mess with, suppressors or not. For me, good plugs (even the cheap foam type work provides) work the best and offer the best protection of everything else Ive tried/used.
I think if you get to checking too, even with a suppressor mounted, most of them still exceed what is deemed the safe level (below 85db). Keep in mind too, that decibel levels are not linear, they are logarithmic. 10db is ten times as intense as 0, 20db is 100 times as intense, 30db a 1000 times, and so on. A few decibels can quickly become a big difference.
No doubt things are quieter with one mounted, and they do make a pretty big difference most of the time, especially with some things, but dont let it fool you into thinking damage isnt still being done. Hearing loss is cumulative, and you dont get it back. Well, hearing aids help some.
It is nice to be able to pop something out in the yard from the carport without protection with one of my 5.56 AR's, at least I wont be deaf for a couple of days. For me, an unprotected 22lr from the same spot will do just that to me. The suppressor does knock the muzzle blast down to about nothing, but the "crack" and pressure wave is still there.
Just curious, but how many rounds do you usually shoot at an outing? A couple of rounds, even 10 or 20, really isnt noticeable, but as you get up there, 50, 100 rounds at an outing, I find its quite noticeable, as the round count increases while shooting, and especially later on. And its not that same pain and deadened sound you get from an unprotected, unsuppressed round feel. I can feel my hearing is off a little at the end, not bad, but its there, and its more like that dull earache you get from being close to loud, concussive equipment for 12 hours or so than a sharp pain.