Its raining here again so to further the conversation, Im not a hearing safe fanatic, Iv made choices over the years that have done some damage and I still do though Im trying to be smarter about it. So to pick up on a couple of your points I agree suppressors are very good. I have a couple of different brands I like using them. I don't agree they are safe with single shots though, the reading Iv done suggests other wise, more so with the current short barrel trend on large chamberings and then putting a brake cap on the front can only increase the sound level. It will be interesting to see the results when some testing is done on the db output with these brake caps though as I have nothing to base this on, only opinion.
I dont buy into the confused animal theory. Having shot a significant number over the years from before suppressors were a thing I can say Iv seen no difference over all, sometimes animals run , often they dont. I think the geography, taking the lead animal out first, hunting pressure etc has a much greater impact. Thinking about this from the point of the shooter rather than the target may give us the impression its having an effect but the sonic crack from a super sonic bullet creates more noise than the powder blast from around 60m from the muzzle IIRC. Subsonic obviously would be a different story.
The modern electronic muffs are actually quite good at giving direction of sound, they have improved a lot in a short space of time and the sound enhancement is very good but I get they arn't for everyone. Its hard enough getting some people to use them on the job site
For your bush hunting example I would say defiantly use a suppressor but if the recoil is such that you feel the need to reduce it more than the suppressor has already then then perhaps a smaller cartridge would be worth considering.
Its obviously personal perception but I see the big advantage of suppressors as reducing sound with some recoil reduction. Opening up the front cap and turning them into franken cans to trade off sound suppression for less recoil seems to be a negative to me. Maybe a symptom for trying to get one rifle to do it all ?
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